It may puzzle some as to why a band like the Tea Party that has only put out four albums and an enhanced EP thus far, would already choose to release a collection of their "greatest hits", so to speak, but one has to keep in mind that Martin, Chatwood, and Burrows have been playing music together and putting out albums since the early '90s (and were playing together in other bands going as far back as their childhood) which is longer than other better-known, more influential "power trio" bands like the Jimi Hendrix Experience or the Police; more importantly, like those bands, the Tea Party has an extremely enviable and disproportionately strong output of material in their catalog. Plus, with their last album, Triptych, the band seemed to turn an exciting corner both musically and personally, so, really, it is no surprise that they elected to compile and submit Tangents: The Tea Party Collection before embarking upon the sessions for another album. Despite the unfortunate and more than a little bewildering omission of such Tea Party staples as "A Certain Slant of Light," "Correspondences," and "Transmission," Tangents actually performs the difficult task of capturing the band's past highlights in a one-disc retrospective very well, with quite a bit of grace -- and, of course, though fans may argue over what songs were excluded, as fans always will, all of the band's biggest and best-known songs ("Sister Awake," "Save Me," "Temptation," and "Heaven Coming Down") are present and accounted for here. Although it's disappointing to discover that great older songs like "Let Me Show You the Door" and "Watching What the Rain Blows In" -- both of which could have easily stood their ground even in this fine company -- are absent, along with everything else yet to be re-released from the band's nearly impossible-to-find 1993 indie album, they did take the time to gather up a small trove of obscurities and B-sides (strangely, though, "The Woman Is a Devil" isn't here) from European versions of Triptych that came with bonus discs. and which the compilers have collected over the years, the best of these being the elegant and near-anthemic euphoria of "Lifeline," a song which is as good as anything released on their albums, and the worst of these being an interesting but poorly chosen cover of the Stones' classic "Paint It Black," which provides an exercise in the saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Also included is the pre-released "Walking Wounded" from the band's upcoming album, which was (perhaps) hyped too much as the next "Sister Awake," due to the song's inherent multi-part complexities; yet, while being an excellent composition in its own right, it doesn't quite break the barrier of its own expectations. All in all, Tangents is an undisputed, indispensable affair for those searching for a comprehensive, well-rounded introduction to the the Tea Party (as well as those who are already fans) because it provides both the broad sweep of classics for newcomers and the best-cut centrifuge of rarities available for fans mending the gaps in their own collections.
© Matthias Sheaks /TiVo