Customer Reviews

Lily on the Beach

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is probably more intense overall than its predecessor, "Optical Race", but with a slightly lighter mood and more variety toward the end. Paul Haslinger and Edgar Froese continue to show off their wizardry here on electronic keyboards, guitars and drums, and again the emphasis is on progressive, driving compositions that are never boring because they don't just stick to one pattern or texture, but morph and grow with each phrase. This music is undeniably cool and a great motivator for workouts or physical tasks. Standout numbers on "Lily on the Beach" include "Desert Drive", "Crystal Curfew", "Valley of the Kings" and the opening track, "Too Hot for My Chinchilla" (no kidding, that's the title and no, I don't have the slightest idea what it means!). The closing track, "Long Island Sunset", is nice too, with varying tempos and intensities, and accoustic saxophone and flute provided by guest artist Hubert Waldner. If you like "Lily on the Beach", you're sure to like two other Tangerine Dream releases too--"Optical Race" and "Melrose".

This album, one of the three Melrose companions featuring Paul Haslinger (also "Melrose" and "Optical Race") is a continuation of TD's experimentation with shorter tracks, the longest being 7 minutes. In doing this, there's no room to have changes of pace or texture within a single track, and those who like TD for their musical-journey type experiences may be disappointed. One other "disappointment" which annoys me personally is the use of aggressive electric guitar on several tracks - to me, this seems like "Eddie Van Halen crashed our party!", not TD. Enough of the bad points.

Most of the tracks have a catchy melody that is memorable, and makes for great driving music. The title track ("Lily on the Beach") has a very interesting tune, and moves along seamlessly. Another notable is "Mount Shasta", which has some very large, open, majestic tones to it, as well as an unusual stop-and-go bass rhythym behind the theme. "Twenty-Nine Palms" (can't imagine where this title came from?) has a beautiful melody for piano as the main theme, but would probably sound much better on a full-bodied grand piano, than on the somewhat spikey sounding electric. The final track "Long Island Sunset" is magnificent. Featuring one Hubert Waldner on sax and flute, the piece builds serenely to a fast, raucous flute section in the middle (reminiscent of Ian Anderson), stepping down with sax to the dreamy, sunset-like closing minutes. The sax addition must have gained immediate approval, as we have the almost regular addition of Linda Spa on many subsequent TD discs "blowing her own horn" with admirable skill and contribution.

For fun music, with melodies to hum, and rhythyms to tap your feet to (or gas pedal!), the three Melrose discs are very satisfying, and somehow keep being listened to over and over again.

Lily on the Beach was the very first TD album I listened to and love it. I like TD style in this Album. As far as other TD albums this album is very different from what I have noticed. TD is pritty cool. I love it, this is very quick pace and yet not annoying. You feel like your going on a Rollercoaster with imagination. Great Job TD!

This is one of my favorite works from Tangerine Dream. When I listen to this CD, I often find that many of the tunes will pull me into their world as it were, putting me very much at ease. As a collection, it strikes a nice balance between the energetic and the somber.

As with any musical group, my favorite collections are those I can listen to regardless of my mood and still enjoy them. This CD is one of those collections. If you've never listened to Tangerine Dream, buy this CD and you'll get a very good idea of what their music is about.

"Lily on the Beach" dates from 1989, during the period when the Tangerine Dream line-up was reduced to just Edgar Froese and Paul Haslinger (although Jerome Froese makes his first appearance on a TD disc here, as guest guitarist on the track `Radio City', while another guest, Hubert Waldner, contributes some lovely sax and flute playing on the closing track, `Long Island Sunset').

In many ways, this disc represents the very peak of that period in Tangerine Dream's musical history. It contains 13 tracks, totalling some 56 minutes of music in all. Only one track (`Long Island Sunset', 7:11) is longer than 5 minutes -- most clock in at around 4 mins -- but almost without exception each exhibits the delicacy of sound and intricacy of structure that was once synonymous with Tangerine Dream. And taken all together, the listener is treated to a great variety of unusual (yet distinctive) synthesiser voices used with great sensitivity. Percussion lines are heavy and yet varied -- interesting in both style and beat, employing a fascinating array of different percussion voices not only across the album as a whole, but within each track also. In fact, I think the use of percussion on this disc is about the best that Tangerine Dream ever managed: more punchy and used with greater emphasis and prominence than on earlier discs but also used with more variety and to greater effect within the music as a whole than on many of their later discs. The synth programming is generally more interesting than on later discs, too, although many listeners may regard it all as just so much more trademark Dream.

Nothing wrong with that, say I, especially when employed in such strong tunes as these, with great melodies supported by an interesting beat. Don't miss out!

"Lily On The Beach" was the follow-up studio album to the style shattering "Optical Race". (The soundtrack, "Miracle Mile" bisects them). Again it's just Froese and Haslinger, and never did the term "quantity rather than quality" apply so much to a TD album.

Here we have some real Cubase driven workouts. The whole album feels overly mechanized, even for TD who are famed for their pursuit of technology (sometimes at the expense of musical progression). But this was the late 80's and the analogue revival had not really kicked into gear yet (no pun intended)... The sounds here are extremely digital and exhibit little of the warmth or fullness of albums like "Poland" or even "Optical Race".

However, "Lily..." is not a complete failure (I've given it three stars after all) and there are a few nice tunes; the opener, "Too Hot For My Chinchilla" (excellent title)! opens nicely and has a strong central theme and guitar solo that touches on "Underwater Sunlight" territory. The title track has a nice clavichord introduction (very "Livemiles"), but degenerates into a tune so twee it could have been on "Destination Berlin"!

"Alaskan Summer" is probably my favourite here; strong theme and powerful rhythm section that remains compelling to the end of the track; shame it's only 3 and a half minutes! "Desert Drive" is more up-tempo and has nothing really to offer; and that's the problem from then on. These tracks really are background music; so much of earlier TD was upfront and interesting; pulling the listener in to empathise with the emotions of the music.

"Crystal Curfew" is similar to the track "Optical Race" and is almost a reworking of "Desert Drive"! "Twenty-Nine Palms" is Haslinger (I would guess) pulling the cover off the old grand piano and while it's a welcome release from the constant sequencing, it's not really compelling enough.

The last four tracks of the album... well; Froese should really have thought better. "Blue Mango Cafe" and "Gecko" are just plain bad; they sound like the lame demo tunes that Korg sequencers come preloaded with.... (weren't TD using T1s around this time...:-)

"Long Island Sunset" is rather better, although the thinness of the sax sound is a bit offputting, but it shows they have an ear for a good melody when they put their minds to it. The trouble with writing, performing, producing and engineering everything yourself is that all too often there's no-one to give constructive criticism. Cut the number of tracks in half and explore the better themes in greater depth... but judging by some of the other reviews here, I'm in a minority!

This is the beginning of TD being rellogated to the easy-listening section... buy "Rubycon", "Phaedra" or "Poland" and wonder at the demise of what once was so magnificent.

I have to categorically disagree with the naysayers--Lily on the Beach is an important, well-executed recording that brought to the fore the band's evolution from drifting, hypnotic, if not ambling, "sonic tapestries" toward a more refined, sophisticated sound. In LOTB, Haslinger and Froese expand on the their previous two progressions--Underwater Sunlight and Optical Race--to create an album of tighter, well-thought out compositions. While still very much a synthesizer-oriented group (no slight there--I was a keyboardist myself), TD has freely incorporated "the rest of the band" through the inclusion of more complex rhythms and percussion, an occasional sax, greater use of sampling technology, and most striking, raw, almost heavy metal, guitar solos on a few tracks (played by Edgar's son, Jerome--now a full-time member of the band), which provide a welcome punch the mood where needed.

The tracks run the gambit of styles from the light, whimsical "Gecko" to the driving, aggressive rock of "Radio City" to longing, romantic, saxophone-tinged strains of "Long Island Sunset." All in all, the band's improved compositional skills now highlight quality over quantity and have oriented the compositions toward a more progressive rock sound without losing the etheral spirit that made TD so good.

This in an essential part of any progressive-oriented music library.

I first bought this CD in college and loved it so much that I rebought it when I loaned it out and it never came back. Every song seems to flow into one another and the hypnotic instrumentals are both electrifying and soothing without being repititious. Besides, with titles like "Too Hot for my Chinchilla" how could you possibly go wrong?

There are different kinds of fans of Tangerine Dream music, so to understand my reviews, you must understand my tastes. I prefer their later works, with songs that are harmonious, rhythmic, lyrical, and "pretty." Their first excellent album for me was Underwater Sunlight. You might find (by reading lots of reviews) that the people who love TDream's early work dislike the later albums; people who like the later albums don't like the early stuff. I am the 2nd type. Of my 22 or so TDream albums so far, the greatest ones (in approximate order) are: Le Parc, Underwater Sunlight, Architecture in Motion, Private Music, Goblins' Club, Optical Race, Melrose, Lily on the Beach. OK albums are: Tang-go, Force Majeure, Exit. Unpleasant albums are: Turn of the Tides, Rockoon, Stratosfear, Phaedra, Atem, Alpha Centauri, Elect. Meditation, or anything else pre '83. I love track 3, "Alaskan Summer." "Blue Mango Cafe" (#11) is lots of fun! Track 5 constantly leaves me hanging -- very upsetting. The rest of the album is quite good! TDream fans who share my tastes MUST try out Patrick O'Hearn.

The 4 "Melrose Years" albums (Optical Race, Miracle Mile, Lily On The Beach and Melrose) were missing from my collection of TD so at this low price, I decided to add this to the rest. This isn't my favorite era of the band but there are tracks on each of the 4 albums that are worth having. Tangerine Dream evolved over the years from a cutting edge Berlin School electronic rock band with music written as a group to more of a rock fusion period to a dreadful smooth jazz period with Kenny G type saxophone parts to pretty much just Edgar Froese writing all the music and the present band performing it. They still have their moments and their live shows are still worth seeing but I no longer look forward excitedly to their next release as I once did.