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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An under-appreciated classic, June 2, 2008
In 1978, Tangerine Dream's first major attempt at introducing vocals into their music (with the album "Cyclone") met with fairly dismal failure. Nine years and two changes of personnel later, the band made a second attempt with "Tyger". This album's title comes from its opening track, which is a setting of William Blake's poem "The Tyger". Others of Blake's allegorical and prophetic writings appear throughout the album. The track 'London' features not only "LONDON" (from his "Songs of Experience") but also mixes in the prefacing stanza from "A Little GIRL Lost" and the whole of "THE FLY" from the same collection, plus half-a-dozen lines (46-51) from "America: A Prophecy" (1793). Similarly, 'Smile' sets the first poem from Blake's so-called "Pickering" manuscript, written about 1803.
The vocalist throughout is guest R&B star, Jocelyn Bernadette Smith, who, it must be said, has a very powerful and beautiful singing voice, and is a joy to listen to. While she does quite a good job of difficult stuff, here, I find these tracks a little marred by her seeming lack of understanding of just what she is singing about at times. (She certainly doesn't know how to pronounce "Thames", for instance.) None the less, with these works, Tangerine Dream demonstrate that they are well able to integrate the singing voice into their own particular sound world.
Froese was no doubt drawn to Blake's mysterious and mystical works through his own interest in Surrealism - a movement that has often drawn heavily on Blake for its inspiration. Perhaps even, he was responding to the direct plea made in Blake's "Milton: A Prophecy": "Rouze up, O Young Men of the New Age! Set your foreheads against the ignorant Hirelings... who would, if they could, for ever depress Mental, and prolong Corporeal War. Painters! On you I call. Sculptors! Architects!" Now, how could Froese, as a true artist (painter as well as musician) of the New Age, resist that? In terms of commercial appeal, however, the choice was probably ill advised. These texts are not easy to comprehend at the best of times. They have certainly never enjoyed wide popularity outside of the intellectual elite. I suspect that most people (especially in English-speaking countries) get too much Blake forced upon them at too early an age to ever develop much of a taste for it! But whether or not this album is (as some have suggested) as far ahead of its time as Blake was ahead of his, its subject matter just about kills it stone dead for most listeners. Which is a great shame, for the settings are really rather fine and deserve to be given a fair hearing.
Plus, there is a lot of music on this disc that does not involve William Blake. The lengthy instrumental track 'Alchemy of the Heart' harks back to the album "Underwater Sunlight" in its delicacy and flowing lyrical nature. And by way of a bonus, the closing two tracks comprise another entirely instrumental work: '21st Century Common Man'. Added to the album some years after its first release in an attempt to improve sales, this work is neither of the same class nor character as the rest of the disc and really comes across as hasty, after-the-event padding. It would be churlish in the extreme to complain about its presence, though, as there is certainly nothing unpleasant about it. But even with this extra material, the total playing time of 45 minutes still isn't generous.
In my view, no collection of mid-period ('Blue Years') Tangerine Dream would be complete without this disc. It has to be pointed out, though, that much of its best music appears also (in only slightly altered form) on the 5-CD "Dream Roots Collection", so you might prefer to buy that instead.
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