TYRANNY OF BEAUTY

For some early fans, this could be considered as a massacre. For some other ones who understood their swap in their musical style, only some harm was done. But at the end of the day, there were already several years during which TD offered different layered music that the one of their great first decade.

And one had to live with this because several great albums were also released during the eighties.

This one has of course little to with the wonderful "Rubicon" of course. But at the same time, I would say that TD never sold out (so far). Even if the music presented here has NOTHING to do with the great and ambient maestria of the early seventies, it shouldn't be considered as useless either.

Most of the songs are quite decent and acceptable ("Catwalk", " Little Blonde In The Park Of Attractions"). Indeed, there are some weak moments as well. But to be honest, after having reviewed some thirty albums of the band, there were really few weak moments in their discography. Still, "Living In A Fountain Pen" does belong to one of them.

I can't be thrilled with the "adapted" version of the huge "Stratosfear" of course. What can I say? Just listen to the original and superb track of course!

So far, in my TD abundant reviewing I have only rated three of their works with two stars and even if this album is not a great one, I can't go any lower than three stars in terms of the music being played. If you ever consider how poor some production of the giants we had to face in the eighties, TD is certainly one out of many to have raised the prog flag pretty much high in the sky.

There are still some sublime musical moments in here: just listen to the extraordinary guitar work during "Hate Of Fame" to be convinced. Such a passionate moment my dear prog friends. The title track being of no less interesting mood. And what to say about the extreme jewel "Largo". Speachless, my friends.

Only therefore, they owe a lot of merit. I'm maybe rating this album on the higher range, but three stars for this "Tyranny" is my judgement.