Triptych

After the somewhat flat _Transmission_ Canada's Tea Party returns with what is more or less a culmination of lessons learned from the previous three albums. _Triptych_ is a fusion of the led-zeppelin-inspired ethnic explorations, NiN-like electronic rhythms and pulses, and grunge-rock heroics for a most satisfying brew. The lyrics remain, at least for me, inconsistent and occasionally forced. At least lead singer Jeff Martin, the modern-day alt.rock renaissance man, puts his pretentions out front - he thanks, among others, Nietzche, Russian dystopian sci-fi author Yevgeny Zamiatin, Charles Baudelaire AND French Symbolism.Lyrical pretentions aside, there's surprisingly little filler on this album and its consistently interesting in both content and musical texture. If you liked "The Edges Of Twilight" you will probably find this album indispensible. The opener "Touch" is very strong and seems to continue a Transmission-like vibe. "Underground" is a nice mysterious track and features plenty of odd assorted ethnic stringed instruments and percussives. "The Messenger" and "Heaven Coming Down" are typical Tea Party-style ballads, radio-friendly, yet subtly arranged and distinctive (the former written by legendary songwriter/producer Daniel Lanois) "Samsara" is another fine example of Tea Party's ethnic-tinged neo-Zeppelin attack, while some lovingly orchestrated string arrangements dominate the beautiful, haunting closer "Gone".Unfortunately they appear not to have an American distributor (at least their albums are NEVER in the stores), so you'll be paying top dollar for import editions of this one. If you can seek it out, there is a special two-CD "tour" edition that contains a bonus CD of B-sides, live material and other stuff.

Another classic from the tea party. This album contains the hard rock they are known for and two of the best ballads they ever made.They have a slight experimental feel about them on this album, but it all gels well.

Sure it's good, but you can't go around giving EVERYTHING 4 or 5 stars because then you leave no room to differentiate the good stuff from the great stuff or the great stuff from the phenomenal stuff? This is not Tea Party's best. Although it is good compared to most music on the charts at any given time it just doesn't reflect what this band is really made of. Some melodic acoustic tunes highlight this one for me.

Go for fans of industrial music.

Absolutely amazing! I can't get enough of The Tea party. This is probably my favorite album of theirs.You can see all of my live Jeff Martin/The Tea Party/The Armada footage here: (...)

Their finest work...

The most solid The Tea Party album with not a single weak song, absolutely love it.

Not many hard rock bands have spread their wings as far as The Tea Party has in just four albums. In the past, the trio were always about expanding their musical horizons. Each new record saw the band create new sounds and in essence, recreate themselves. But on TripTych, the bands fourth release (already available in Canada), the band decided to meld all their previous incarnations together on one record, as well as implementing another new style. The first sound you hear is the hard driving electronic rock sound the group created for Transmission(their third record), songs like Touch and Great Big Lie are a great showcase for lead singer Jeff Martin's Jim Morrison like growl. Then on songs like Chimera, the middle eastern flair the band put on it's second album The Edges of Twilight resonates strongly. Best of all though is the bands creation of a new lighter pop rock sound on tracks like Heaven Coming Down with its U2 like guitar sound, that hasn't been heard on any previous record. With the combination of such sounds on one album, The Tea Party at once are able to expand their long time fans view of them, but also allow new listeners to get a sense of what The Tea Party is all about. The best song is the sweet romance found on Taking Me Away with its lush sounding chorus. TripTych is the most complete sounding record the band has ever done, which makes it a must have.

Nunca antes había comprado un artículo usado en Amazon, pero en esta ocasión decidí hacerlo ya que la diferencia en precio contra el artículo nuevo era mucha, así que me arriesgué y fue buena decisión. El cd llegó muy rápido y en muy buenas condiciones a pesar de ser usado. La descripción del vendedor era adecuada. El cd sin un sólo rayón y el booklet se ve un poco decolorado por el tiempo pero ni arrugado ni roto

Ich tue mir immer noch schwer, diese Musik einzuordnen. Für mich ist diese CD ein echtes Meisterwerk. Ich habe sie schon sehr lange, sie dann durch einen "Unfall" selbst zerstört und es nicht übers Herz gebracht, sie mir nicht noch einmal zu kaufen. Zwar hatte ich sie schon in meiner iTunes Bibliothek importiert, aber bei dieser CD ist es einfach auch wichtig sie in die Hand zu nehmen und in den CD-Player einzulegen. Jetzt aber genug geschwärmt und zu den Fakten.Die Musik ist speziell. Entweder man mag sie oder nicht. The TeaParty machen auf keinen Fall Musik für den durchschnittlichen Radiohörer. Viel mehr würde ich sie als Underground-Rock mit Orientalen Einflüssen bezeichnen.Perfekt passend für Herbst und Wintertage, bei denen man allerdings nicht depressiv zuhause setzt sondern mit dieser Musik ordentlich Motivation tanken kann.Jeder der The TeaParty noch nicht kennt und die Hörproben interessant findet sollte hier unbedingt zuschlagen. Bei den Fans ist diese Platte ohnehin ein MUSS.

Reçu a l'avance très bien emballé et il fonctionne très bien