TYRANNY OF BEAUTY

It starts with a track which could have been written by Peter Bardens or Alan Parsons. Not bad, but nothing new. The unexpected spanish guitar a la Al Di Meola adds a lot to the track, but is this really Tangerine Dream?

Let's try to ignore the band name, which is now newage oriented, and let's concentrate on music instead. "Catwalk" is a nice easy listening newage track, but it's very similar to Speed of light, an album that Peter Bardens released few years before.

"Birdwatchers Dream" is a little better as it's more in line with the TD music of the period. I sometimes wonder why they have never tried to use proper drums, bit I think it's mainly because they liked the electronic mood given by drone drums.

"Little Blond In The Park Of Attractions" features electric piano and sax. It's a proper newage track. In the 90s I've had some interest in newage, and there was plenty of tracks kike this. In particular I remember a German duo, the CHI, making music like this, but also Bardens comes to mind because of the sax.

"Living in a Fountain Pan is a track that I don't like, really. It has the same rhythm as the other, but the minor chords don't make it more dramatic. Just a bit boring. A so-so track with a 12 strings guitar taking the lead for a while.

With "Stratosfear 1994" the good old squared waves make a brief coming back into the TD sound. I don't know if the lead guitar is Froese or his guest, but Gradwool is mentioned as lead guitar on track 5, so it must be him. Squared waves apart, this is what TD, now just the Froese family, were used to do in the 90s.

"Bride in Cold Tears" sounds more 80s than 90s. It's like the clean guitar his waiting for some longhair metal vocalist to join. It doesn't happen. The mood is still newage., but Jerome Froese seems to have a lot of fun with the percussion. There's a lot of them in this track and not bad, I must say.

"Haze Of Fame" has a slow start. With a different guitar sound it could have been CAMEL. I think Latimer would have sounded great. Not a bad track at all.

The title track is based on two chords: I don't have the "absolute ear", but I guess it's F#minor-B. Interesting lead guitar but nothing special. "Largo" is a term used in classical music, and this closer sounds like a 17th century composition, but again, it may be me, but I hear an unexpected connection with CAMEL. I like it. A pleasant surprise at the end of an album with very few highlights.

In summary, this is not bad, but as like as dozens of TD albums of the 80s and the 90s I wouldn't suggest a newbie to start a TD journey with this one