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| | Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) | | | Music Artist : | | Eno | | Music Style : | | Experimental Rock | | Record Label : | | Caroline | | Release Date : | | 2008-07-08 | | Store Price : | | $14.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $14.98 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Burning Airlines Give You So Much More
2. Back in Judy's Jungle
3. Fat Lady of Limbourg
4. Mother Whale Eyeless
5. Great Pretender
6. Third Uncle
7. Put a Straw Under Baby
8. True Wheel
9. China My China
10. Taking Tiger Mountain
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 Not on the same level as Here Come the Warm Jets....
Submitted on: 2009-05-01 |
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| or Another Green World (or even Before and After Science) but still a good cd in the Eno catalog that has actual vocals. |
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 Masterpiece
Submitted on: 2009-04-08 |
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| Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) is Eno's best, and certainly one of the greatest albums of music ever created. When cited by critics, Eno's Another Green World or Here Come The Warm Jets are chosen as his best and/or one of the best of the 70s, but they are all wrong. This album exceeds both and contains some of the most complex songwriting, instrumentation, and production ever created. If you are a fan of challenging music and/or film, and choose art that requires attention and focus, this work of art is for you. |
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what a mountain to climb
Submitted on: 2008-12-12 |
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This is probably the most underrated album Brian Eno made in the 70's, if only for the fact people seem to prefer to mention the previous album (Here Comes the Warm Jets) and the one after Tiger Mountain (Another Green World). So it makes sense Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy is going to receive less attention.
But, you know, this album *deserves* to be mentioned along with the other two albums, because as far as quality songwriting goes this album is pretty darn good. Not to mention, weirdly diverse, something Brian Eno was very very good at.
The first song on the album is a MAGNIFICENT pop song with wonderful vocals all around. It's a bit short, but it's fantastic in every single way. I absolutely love it. Heck, it's probably in my top 5 favorite Brian Eno songs.
"Back in Judy's Jungle" has a jungle/circus like vocal section. Pretty neat. It's extremely memorable. The next track ("Fat Lady in Limbourgh") reminds me of the Beatles. Speaking of the Beatles, "Mother Whale Eyeless" has a style of songwriting that can be considered on the same level as many classic Beatles song. Yes, you read me correct!
"The Great Pretender" is just very very bizarre, but AGAIN, the vocals are incredible. Brian Eno has creative songwriting talent. Everyone who's heard this album knows that. "The True Wheel" and "China My China" are memorable for the catchy vocal melodies (like the rest of the album for that matter) and so is "Put a Straw Under Baby". The only song that's a bit out of place and highly unusual is "Third Uncle". Good song, but a bit TOO weird even for me. It has a good rhythm section though!
Only the title song doesn't WOW me very much. Nice piano playing, but Eno is no Elton John. I highly recommend the album though. |
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Dreamy Fun With Eno
Submitted on: 2008-06-05 |
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Eno added innovative weirdness to Bryan Ferry's pop sensibility in Roxy Music - same as Cale did for Reed, and Lennon did for McCartney. When Eno left the band after their first 2 albums (1972's "Roxy Music" and 1973's "For Your Pleasure"), he broke up one of rock music's most interesting partnerships.
The problem was - it wasn't enough of a partnership for Eno. It was Bryan Ferry's show, and he chafed under Ferry's dominance. Wishing to record his own music, Eno released his first solo album "Here Come The Warm Jets" (1974). He followed it up with "Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)" (1974).
Both are art-rock masterpieces and a must to own. Of the two, I slightly prefer Tiger - but that's only because I like the way it segues and flows. Jets was more jarring in places. Both contain the most fun and engaging songs of his career, wherein Eno's wild keyboards are accompanied by his all-star friends. On Tiger, those friends include Roxy Music's guitarist Phil Manzanera (who also arranged the songs with Eno and was his assistant producer), Brian Turrington on bass guitar, Freddie Smith on drums, and the great Robert Wyatt on percussion and backing vocals. The lyrics are delightful: clever, surreal, and dreamy - as is the music. Mostly the dream is pleasant - occasionally it's a bit more nightmarish. The playing is tight.
Eno would later issue his half-instrumental album "Another Green World" (1975), and "Before And After Science" (1977). I like them, but they aren't as much fun as the earlier two. Together these 4 comprise his vocal "pop" era, which was followed by years of instrumental "ambient" music. He'd go on to produce and play with many artists - most frequently with Bowie, Talking Heads, and U2. And he made some great music with them. It could even be argued that his input with these often imitated high-profile acts makes him the premier sound-shaper and most influential and important musician of the past 30 years.
But for me, nothing matches his exciting work with Roxy Music - and his first 2 solo albums.
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brilliant, quirky, innovative, and great music too
Submitted on: 2008-02-07 |
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Eno's next album "Another Green World" is most often cited as his best and most influential, and it certainly is a great one, but "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" is my personal favorite. The combination of experimentation, humor, and plenty of pop hooks make this a classic, though a decidedly odd one.
Eno handles all the vocals and, while he certainly is no great singer technically (he's refered to himself as a "non-musician), he does have a unique. mannered style that grows on you. I don't know if you can call it a "concept" album, but there are some threads that run through the songs - travel, conspiracy, China. Each song has a unique sound texture to it, resulting from unorthodox instrumentation (one song has a typewriter solo) and Eno's trademark and groundbreaking sound treatments. The album starts of with a very melodic pop ditty called "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More". That incongruity sets the tone for the rest of the album. "Third Uncle"s scratchy, staccato guitars foreshadow Gang of Four and Wire, among others. The most challenging listen on the album is definitely "Put a Straw Under Baby", which is a derranged, deliberately out-of-tune lullaby with surrreal lyrics, and features the Portsmouth Sinfonia. The Sinfonia, of which Eno was a member, has only two requirements - that members honestly try to play well, and that they show up for rehearsals. You need to hear this to believe it! Quite honestly it's a bit of an "Excedrin Moment", but very creative. The closing title track is a pretty, airy, melodic piece that presages the ambient direction that he would take, starting with his next album (A.G.W.).
This album was released in 1974 and was ahead of its time. Eno had a huge influence on all sorts of new wave and post-punk bands that came on the scene some years later, starting with Talking Heads. I first heard the album in the late 70's and even then I remember how odd the album sounded. It's a cliché, but one of Eno's talents is his ability to "think outside the box". In an interview David Bowie, who worked with Eno in the late 70's on some groundbreaking albums, said they deliberately threw away the instruction manuals for the synthesizers, to see what kind of "bleeps and farts" they could come up with. Eno took (and further delveloped) elements from the avant-guarde and applied them to pop music. Many of these innovations have since become part of the mainstream (sampling, incorporation of non-musical elements), and the electronics sounds decidely retro now, bu the creativity and quirkiness still makes it sound like nothing else. Historical significance aside, this is also a very enjoyable album. Highly recommended.
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