Review Summary: Complex, creative, rings true for today's issues.
I am new to Prog Rock. Granted, I used to listen to 70's Prog Rock bands like Yes and Pink Floyd but I quit listening to Prog Rock for 25 years. Now that I am back listening to the new Prog Rock bands, I have to say that The Tangent is comparable to Yes and Genesis in creativity, complexity, and quality.
A Place in the Queue was the first album I downloaded from iTunes from this band. I have listened to it multiple, multiple times. Everytime I listen to it, I hear something new. Some of the pieces are very complex and it takes multiple listening to really hear all of the variations in tempo, musical instruments, and lyrics. Even Andy Tillison varies his style of singing in each song. Some of the songs are very reminiscent of 70s Jazz pieces while others border on 80's disco. The rock solid songs like "In Earnest" combine smooth Jazz and rock along with a story.
My favorite is "The First Day of School" which is a demo piece on the second CD of this album. It is a very sentimental song at first recalling the excitement and high expectations by everyone when children start school. If you think back to your first day of school, weren't you an "unwritten page"? Wouldn't it be great to go back and start over? As a parent, you send your children off to their first day of school and your "love and hopes are with them on that day". Mine certainly were.
But, this isn't what this song is all about. It contrasts what the first day of school should be for all uf but it turned out to be the worst day at the Beslan Hostage Crisis. The last set of verses turns sad and tragic as Andy Tillison sings about this.
The Beslan school hostage crisis (also referred to as the Beslan school siege or Beslan massacre) began when a group of armed Chechen separatists and supporters took more than 1,200 schoolchildren and adults hostage on September 1, 2004, at School Number One (SNO) in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia-Alania, (an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation). On the third day of the standoff, a chaotic gunbattle broke out between the hostage-takers and Russian security forces. Three hundred and thirty-four (334) civilians were killed, including 186 children, and hundreds more were wounded. Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev took responsibility for the hostage taking.
The initial attack took place on September 1, the traditional start of the Russian school year, referred to as "First September" or "Day of Knowledge."On this day, the children, accompanied by their parents and other relatives, attend ceremonies hosted by their school. It is traditional for the first-year students to give flowers to those entering their final year, and to then be taken to class by the older children.
Most of his songs reflect the current thought in our society about the tragedies announced in the news, the experiences of growing up and being harrassed for who we are, living with technology, consumerism, etc.
