THE MUSIC THAT DIED ALONE

Ok, time for an agonizing question here that goes for more albums but certainly for this one: where does an excellent album end and a masterpiece begin qualitywise ? Hard to say and in this case it's just about impossible to decide which to go for.

So far I already reviewed all The Tangent's albums and all of them are at least excellent and made the band one of my favorites of all time really. Funny enough I checked out this debut as last in line but this one is actually better than the rest and the reason why is simple: this album has no weak points, let alone songs. Three quarters of absolutely magnificent jazzy and energetic music with as ultimate highlight the streamsong here on PA: Up Hill from here.

I'd say check it out one day and if you don't like it: don't buy this album because this track shines and rocks and thrills big time. Music simply doesn't get much better than this as far as I'm concerned. And the other (multi-layered) songs aren't much less in fact. Two more or less symphonic prog epics with jazz influence and one more in Canterbury style as the title already suggests. I'm sorry for Andy Tilison but I really loved The Tangent best when The Flower Kings members (Stolt, Reingold and Csörsz) were still around. They guarantee sheer quality in musicianship and composition as well as production.

So there you go, quite some reasons to go for the max here. I often round down the albums that score round about 4,5 stars but this scores just a bit higher and it also fits in one of my criterions for the full 5: when it's an all over great album without fillers or weak moments. So 5 stars it is.