Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A new direction for The Tea Party....is it for the better? , February 18, 2005
This so called "new direction" was actually notable on the Interzone Mantras but fully branched out on their lates album Seven Circles. The group has moved into more of a harder rockish style than what their sound was in the 90s. They've looked too more filler tracks while still trying to keep in touch with their wonderful balladic sense and style of songwriting. That's notable in Oceans and The Watcher. They go pretty deep in the lyrical standpoint of some songs as well. Overall, this new direction for Jeff Martin and the gang could lead to trouble and they could end up falling into the mix of the typical rock music we hear now. However, they still have an original sound.
Best Songs:
Stargazer: A very melodic rock/ballad with a beautiful intro and wonderful closing. Strong lyrically as well.
Writing's on The Wall: Great Single. Typical Tea Party doing a good job as they carry a strong rock beat in this track.
The Watcher: A wonderful ballad with a great mix of sounds.
Empty Glass: I love the guitar tune to this one and it has a great melody to it.
Seven Circles: A great tune to close out the album. It carries a very strong guitar riff with a strong lyrical delivery from Jeff Martin.
Overall, I'll recommend this album to any Tea Party fan. If you're just looking into them though, you might want to start with their Tangents album which features their greatest hits.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good modern rock, lousy Tea Party, September 13, 2004
The majority of what I wished to say has already been said here, but I feel compelled to throw as much criticism as possible at this album. Why? Because this band should've known better. Seven Circles is a solid modern rock album that would have made a lovely debut for any up and coming band. Once the Tea Party name was attached to this recording, expectations shot up while the worth of the album dropped down. Way down.
Unlike some of the other reviewers, I've completely enjoyed *every* Tea Party disc. Some find Triptych to be too commercial - I see it as evolution. Interzone Mantras feels like a louder Tea Party, still vibrant, but evolved. Seven Circles, however, sounds like a band moving backwards - just without all the good stuff. The riffs are basic, the songs are unremarkable, and the lyrics are often worse than those scribbled into the notebooks of sad junior high school kids everywhere. Oceans and Empty Glass are particularly horrible to listen to lyrically.
At points, this album almost delievered. One Step Closer Away started out moody and held my attention until the ridiculous chorus kicked in. How in the world did anyone think that transition would work? It sounds like a cut-and-paste of two completely different songs. The female vocal on Wishing You Would Stay is something that I'm wishing would have gone (clever, eh?). Some tracks were pretty good (Luxuria, Seven Circles), but the latter fell totally flat when it had every opportunity to spiral into a fantastic crescendo. Everything about this album was just missing something.
I want to be critical of this album for a good reason - the Tea Party can do much better and they should know it. Their fans have high expectations of them because they're such a talented and creative group of musicians. Being vocal in the disappointment of this album isn't meant to be negative; rather, a sort of tough love. We know they can do better and *want* them to do better. I'll be there to buy the next album, too, but I can only hope they learn from this mistake and do their talents justice next time around.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
700 Stories to Fall, October 25, 2005
The Tea Party. Devastatingly powerful, haunting, and exquisitely beautiful. I've had the sheer honor to watch their evolution since `94 and attended a goodly sum of live shows (all of which were naught short of divine). They've traversed from blues, folk, industrial, eastern fusion to six kinds o' rock n' roll. Honestly their discography is a part of my soul. Alas, this maudlin swan dive dubbed Seven Circles succumbs to monotonous banality.
Despite having a flawless track record up to this point, there have been some questionable decisions made by the band in recent years. Most notably employing the help of Sc*tt St*pp & Seven Circles producers Gavin Brown & B*b R*ck. And let us give an honorable mention to the latter. That vile despicable wretched loathsome li'l speck of flesh has fouled all the sacred territory he has, for unknown reasons, been allowed to walk. May his soul rot in putrid foulness.
There is also the issue of releasing anemic radio-friendly ballads as singles time and time again (heaven coming down, messenger, angels, soulbreaking, stargazer, oceans). Anyhoo...onward to Seven Circles ( 7c ).
Through trial and error I have found that the best way to abide this album is to be distressingly drunk and having the volume knob at 11. Nevertheless, I find some of the insipid lyrics still grate my brain in this state. To name a few (warning: reading these may cause a nervous twitch):
- "these are the times / when we live inside our minds / with our hands in the air / there's voices everywhere/ in the slipstream /its like a daydream" - stargazer
- "you're always there/ you're everywhere" - one step closer away
- "so sing all along/ sing every song/ louder/ louder now" -overload
- "if you show me what I'm missing / if you tell me I would listen to you / guide me through the night" - the watcher
- "a starman will come/ when diamond dogs run/ we need ground control/ we're losing our souls" - empty glass *
- "I know you feel it hurts now/ like a thorn beneath a rose" -wishing you would stay
- "as the world keeps turning/ and we keep on searching/ for seven circles twisting" - seven circles
* Note that Empty Glass has several pitifully unclever references to the legend that is David Bowie.
Without fail I find that while listening to any of the 11 songs on this album the notion comes into my little head that there is another 90 songs in their repertoire I'd rather listen to. The Seven Circles gambit is an emotional flatline. Except I occasionally feel the bile rise in profuse quantities while listening to the first three minutes and the FADE OUT of the title track. I should probably not even mention what the syrupy wasteland that is The Watcher does to me. Nor the "Oh yeah"s and "Come On!"s in Overload. Sure Holly McNarland's vocals on Wishing you Would Stay leave nothing to be desired, but so what? I will say that yawns come unbidden with the utmost frequency when partaking in this menagerie of songs.
Despite my grudging incessant gripes on this album it does have a few moments scattered in here and there. Though those alone do not merit to subject yourself to the other 40 minutes of music. I will admit that Luxuria is unarguably the figurehead on 7c. Yet Luxuria still isn't up to par to the awe-inspiring soul-wrenching masterpieces of their previous albums: Halcyon Days, Sister Awake, Transmission, Psychopomp, Correspondences, Save Me, Fire in the Head, The River, Army Ants, Samsara, Mantra, Winter Solstice, lullaby, sun going down, great big lie, shadows on the mountainside, let me show you the door, raven skies, a slight attack, solomon's blues, pie dog on the prowl, cathartik, underground, babylon, embryo, can you see my tears?, fallen angel, silence, alarum, in this time, all my charms, the badger, a certain slant of light, baby what you trying to do, waiting on a sign, drawing down the moon, gone, majestic song, the bazaar, on my knees, time, touch, walking wounded, dreams of reason, chimera, release, walk with me, inanna, turn the lamp down low, watching what the rain blows in, emerald, aftermath, midsummer day, these living arms, little miss heaven, pulse, coming home, gyroscope, haze on the hills, good man rag.
Gazing over that list, I feel no remorse in renouncing Seven Circles. Nothing on this album compares to the days of old. Jeff Martin himself has since said this is not where he wanted the band to go musically and has pretty much disowned it. Rightfully so. If the Tea Party was going to mar their good name with more albums like this, I'm not the least bit sad that the break up came when it did. I just wish it had been sooner.
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by The Tea Party 
