Song Review of the Day
Temptation by The Tea Party
This was the song that started it all for me. A song that hooked me and to this day I still think is one of The Tea Party's best. The music is top notch to me, and what most people don't know is that that the CD version actually has a nice guitar instrumental that introduces the song very nicely. It's very Spanish the instrumental part which a dark flavour to it. The rhthym of the intro envokes anticipation with it's sudden jerks of chord strumming and slow serenading plucks.
The actual song itself is great, with hints of DJ scratches, obvously spine-tingling techno and a dull but base like guitar. The drums resound in nice and clear and actually goes into a small electro-drumpad solo that really lifts the song up followed by a great crescendo with the guitar.
The lyrics are a blast, nothing to incredibly deep since it deals with our regular temptations in life, in face it most likely dealt with the temptation of lust. They also deal with the existence of God and such, but nothing too entirely blasphemous compared to their other songs about religion.
To some degree the lyrics and melody nudges the border of being "pop" music with it's catchy tunes and such, however with it's incredibly layered and dark feeling, thankfully it doesn't go "non-balls" out with pop music. In fact compared to the rest of The Tea Party's repretoire, this is as far as I would bear for any credible Tea Party song without instantly labelling it as "pop".
As for it's live potential I had a chance to listen to it live and needless it say it really stinks compared to how perfect I feel the CD vers of the song is. I don't mean it in a way that it's not CD perfect or their off tune here, I do realize that live music would never attain the clear crisp perfection that is CD constructed music.
However on the CD there are layering effects in the chorus with Jeff Martin's voice (leader of the band), such that there is no possible way for Martin to actually sing the chorus, he would have to cut out the parts that follow each singing of "Temptation" and go all full with the single word, or scrunch up the entire lyrical part making it sound awkwardly rushed.
The second problem that I have with this song live is the amount of guitar work Martin actually has to do with this song to play out the high pitch sound effects. Personally I feel it's a poor choice considering that in effect he has to concentrate more on keeping pace and right plucks rather than the mood of the song envoked by his voice. It often sounds laboured and robotic to me, not smooth and sensual like on the CD because of that outcome. I don't blame him too much considering that in all respect, all the subtlties of their songs are often lost because of large venues, The Tea Party are often better as a small venue band where loudness is less of an necessitiy to get the song out to the back of the stadium.
The only retribution from the live song is his inclusion of a guitar solo that is maticulously great. However as Martin usually goes on with concerts playing a song, he tends to draw out the solos to an unbearable length, losing the good pacing of it. Of course that is just my opinion.
Overall this song is incredibly great, I love it and would listen it to death. In fact I like more the Tom Algre mix more than the general CD version because subtlties resound out more clear than the original version and the high pitch sounds are more prevalent. However for it's live potential it loses incredible points. It's great considering that it borders being remotly labelled "pop" music, but at the same time still sticks to the values and roots to what The Tea Party stands for.
4.5/5.0 as a CD song by itself.
4.0/5.0 stars overall.
Temptation by The Tea Party
This was the song that started it all for me. A song that hooked me and to this day I still think is one of The Tea Party's best. The music is top notch to me, and what most people don't know is that that the CD version actually has a nice guitar instrumental that introduces the song very nicely. It's very Spanish the instrumental part which a dark flavour to it. The rhthym of the intro envokes anticipation with it's sudden jerks of chord strumming and slow serenading plucks.
The actual song itself is great, with hints of DJ scratches, obvously spine-tingling techno and a dull but base like guitar. The drums resound in nice and clear and actually goes into a small electro-drumpad solo that really lifts the song up followed by a great crescendo with the guitar.
The lyrics are a blast, nothing to incredibly deep since it deals with our regular temptations in life, in face it most likely dealt with the temptation of lust. They also deal with the existence of God and such, but nothing too entirely blasphemous compared to their other songs about religion.
To some degree the lyrics and melody nudges the border of being "pop" music with it's catchy tunes and such, however with it's incredibly layered and dark feeling, thankfully it doesn't go "non-balls" out with pop music. In fact compared to the rest of The Tea Party's repretoire, this is as far as I would bear for any credible Tea Party song without instantly labelling it as "pop".
As for it's live potential I had a chance to listen to it live and needless it say it really stinks compared to how perfect I feel the CD vers of the song is. I don't mean it in a way that it's not CD perfect or their off tune here, I do realize that live music would never attain the clear crisp perfection that is CD constructed music.
However on the CD there are layering effects in the chorus with Jeff Martin's voice (leader of the band), such that there is no possible way for Martin to actually sing the chorus, he would have to cut out the parts that follow each singing of "Temptation" and go all full with the single word, or scrunch up the entire lyrical part making it sound awkwardly rushed.
The second problem that I have with this song live is the amount of guitar work Martin actually has to do with this song to play out the high pitch sound effects. Personally I feel it's a poor choice considering that in effect he has to concentrate more on keeping pace and right plucks rather than the mood of the song envoked by his voice. It often sounds laboured and robotic to me, not smooth and sensual like on the CD because of that outcome. I don't blame him too much considering that in all respect, all the subtlties of their songs are often lost because of large venues, The Tea Party are often better as a small venue band where loudness is less of an necessitiy to get the song out to the back of the stadium.
The only retribution from the live song is his inclusion of a guitar solo that is maticulously great. However as Martin usually goes on with concerts playing a song, he tends to draw out the solos to an unbearable length, losing the good pacing of it. Of course that is just my opinion.
Overall this song is incredibly great, I love it and would listen it to death. In fact I like more the Tom Algre mix more than the general CD version because subtlties resound out more clear than the original version and the high pitch sounds are more prevalent. However for it's live potential it loses incredible points. It's great considering that it borders being remotly labelled "pop" music, but at the same time still sticks to the values and roots to what The Tea Party stands for.
4.5/5.0 as a CD song by itself.
4.0/5.0 stars overall.
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