Various:
Tears of the Black Tiger Music from the Motion Picture
MILAN 74321 91780 2 [38:18]
Crotchet Amazon US
The first thing you notice is the garish artwork for the booklet cover. 'Love, Ambush, Betrayal' it extols, with a picture of a cowboy (rather oriental looking and with a tear in the eye that might suggest that there could be flowing feminine curls under that hat) and perhaps the same person, a pretty young girl, holding a parasol and luggage, stepping from a distinctly oriental summerhouse. Other pictures suggest a cowboy shoot-out others a more modern war-time setting.
I suggest all this because the music embraces a bewildering plethora of styles. The opening track 'Mercy', belies its title for it is a cheerful upbeat number that has a tenor voice over what sounds like an oriental Palm Court Orchestra. 'The Moon Lament' has a husky soprano voice with a shaky delivery, sliding up and down to her notes, the tune a rather sentimental country and western seasoned with oriental figures. 'When the Rain Bid the Sky Farewell' has the lady continuing her musings over a mix of waltz and tango rhythms the music veering in a more westerly direction. The sentimental 'Destiny' from the male vocalist lunges back towards traditional oriental. 'Beautiful Beach' suddenly sidetracks towards Hawaii with the guitarists sliding all over the place as well as the fermale vocalist. In 'Splendid Night Sky' the lady's huskiness rivals that of Marlene Dietrich.
Six out of the thirteen tracks are purely instrumental and most are repeats of earlier material. For example, Mercy, this time round has whistling replacing the vocal. Elsewhere, listen out for the simulated gun shots, they give a whole new dimension to the western genre!
File under – Curiosities (very curious!) One of those CDs that is so bad that its good; fun in small doses.
Ian Lace
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