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Edgar Froese and company... singing.
After launching their "third phase" with the excellent Hyperborea of 1983, a real watershed album, Tangerine Dream traversed the rest of the Eighties with more or less interesting soundtracks and mostly dull albums.
The continuous and, in some ways, embarrassing lineup changes (among many, the departure of the excellent Johannes Schmoelling, a key figure in Hyperborea and also in the previous White Eagle) and a lost compositional clarity (and of intent) determined a sad downward trend in terms of acclaim and, no less important, earnings.
Among many, Tyger from 1987 is confused, at times boring and inconclusive. It is the hefty price to pay for having abandoned the cosmic drifts and the bold (albeit not always satisfying) experiments of the late Seventies: if "Tyger" fails to have the much-desired radio bite, despite its semi-catchy tune, the instrumental escape at the end of "London" does not even match the same intensity as a vintage "Thru Metamorphic Rocks".
Before closing with the embarrassing "Smile", the track that tries to save the situation is a pleasant "Alchemy of the Heart", which starts off excellently but falls apart disastrously at the end.
On one hand, the texts of William Blake, which permeate the album, certainly would have deserved more attention; on the other, the vocal effort of newcomer Jocelyn Smith makes the record unusual, and thus worthy of mention, within the band's discography: it is, in fact, after decades of career, their second album to contain vocal parts.
This small detail raises the appreciation bar and thus earns a pass. To be listened to, only if your curiosity is yawn-proof.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Tyger (05:13)
Tyger, Tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger, Tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
02 London (14:25)
Artist: Tangerine Dream
Song: London
Album: Tyger
LONDON (poem of William Blake [1757-1827])
I wander thro' each charter'd street
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear:
How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every black'ning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls;
But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
(Excerpt from "AMERICA")
Rise and look out; his chains are loose, his dungeon doors are
open;
And let his wife and children return from the opressor's
scourge.
They look behind at every step and believe it is a dream,
Singing: "The Sun has left his blackness, and has found a fresher
morning,
And the fair Moon rejoices in the clear and cloudless night;
For Empire is no more, and now the Lion and Wolf shall
cease."
--
04 Smile (05:53)
Artist: Tangerine Dream
Song: The Smile
Album: Tyger
THE SMILE (poem of William Blake [1757-1827])
There is a smile of love,
And there is a smile of deceit;
And there is a smile of smiles
In which these two smiles meet.
And there is a frown of hate,
And there is a frown of disdain;
And there is a frown of frowns
Which you strive to forget in vain,
For it sticks in the heart's deep core,
And it sticks in the deep backbone;
And no smile that ever was smiled,
But only one smiles alone
That betwixt the cradle and grave
It only once smiled can be;
But when it once is smiled
There's no end to misery.
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