Teargarden by Kaleidyscope as a standalone album.
 

We got an albums worth of Teargarden songs before Oceania ended the project (regardless of what Billy says about it). So this was essentially an album between Zeitgeist and Oceania.

Zeitgeist (2007)
Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (2009)
Oceania (2012)

Treated as such...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...cope_cover.jpg

1. Teargarden Theme
2. A Stitch In Time
3. Astral Planes
4. Widow Wake My Mind
5. Owata
6. Lightning Strikes
7. The Fellowship
8. Freak
9. Tom Tom
10. Spangled
11. Cottonwood Symphony

Update: A Song For A Son has been removed. It excruciating and doesn't fit in with the rest of the album. Certainly not as an opener. No idea why Corgan felt that was the song to launch the project...

I slotted the volume 3 tracks in between the two released volumes as Cottonwood Symphony makes a decent closer, and Owata was sort of the lead single as it had a video so it needs to come higher up the tracklisting. I haven't listened to these tracks since they were released individually (maybe once or twice with the exception of Owata), so if you haven't and you're sitting comfortably, perhaps we can re-assess this album together. How will this compare to Oceania? Where will it rank in the SP canon? I'm excited to find out!

It will rank last.

What about the car song

CMONNFEELLOVE
CMONNFEELLOVE
CMONNFEELLOVE

Woody can you upload that? Apparently I hate myself and want to listen to that music again.

What song is this? Was it a studio recording? Let me know if I've missed any.

I'm currently acquiring the tracks, I will upload once they're assembled.

do these songs still fucking suck?

Going to do a full track breakdown to see if there's a way to make a decent tracklisting/album out of this stuff.

Teargarden Theme > Stitch in Time actually flows quite nicely and doesn't sound completely and utterly shit.

That was a Zeitgeist outtake.

Personally, I would prefer a Backwards Clock Society "live album" to this. That version of Tom Tom was way better too.

If you want a listenable Teargarden experience this first thing you must do is erase A Song For A Son. It has no place in anyone's ears.
Once removed, here's the album breakdown with Monte-style nuggets! Bear in mind these scores are relative. So... a 9/10 song here (spoiler: there aren't any) would probably rank far lower if it were on, say, MCIS.


1. Teargarden Theme - Pleasant instrumental opener a la MCIS, segways into the chords of Widow Wake My Mind. At 3 minutes it's a minute too long. 5/10

2. A Stitch In Time - Teargarden's primary sound is established: minstrel guitars and fairy synths. There are a few hooks but no-one is ever going to say "I must listen to Stitch in Time by The Smashing Pumpkins!" 6/10

3. Astral Planes - Sounds like it wants to be a Glass' Theme rocker but the band's feeling a bit tired. S'alright. 4/10

4. Widow Wake My Mind - As featured in the Teargarden Theme. Some catchy hooks and memorable lyrics, but it sort have plods. The longest track on the album. Becomes annoying. 3/10

5. Owata - The lead single, and what should have been the album highlight. I would describe the first minute as nauseous. It improves as the FUCKING IRRITATING SYNTHS gets lowered in the mix, but they're still there... ends on bittersweet note. Butchered. 6/10

6. Lightning Strikes - Back into rockier territory. One of the strongest songs here. The "You can makes this happen" parts are actually properly good, not just relatively to the rest of this crap. Better than plenty of Oceania songs. 7/10

7. The Fellowship - Billy joins the YMCA. Plays the cop's penis like a synthesizer. Challenges the audience to join him. 6/10

8. Freak - One of the most immediate guitar hooks, memorable chorus and pretty good lyrics. Despite the sum of it's parts, it just isn't a very good song. 5/10

9. Tom Tom - The best track here. 8/10

10. Spangled - Billy sings over a NES track. It's not awful. It's reasonable. It's quite nice in places. I think I like it. 7/10

11. Cottonwood Symphony - Simple acoustic ditty to end on. When is Billy going to record an acoustic album and realise that is his forte now? 7/10


So... where does that rank it in the SP canon? Well, half of these songs are better than half that made Oceania. What strikes me from listening back is there isn't this huge gulf in quality between the two. If you're in the mood, the sound of Teargarden can actually be quite a refreshing departure and even if you're not... it's alright. There are some ok songs that survive the production process, there are some ok songs that are smothered or appear in lethargic form, and there are some utter shitters. And then there's Song For A Son.

I could rank it between Oceania and Zeitgeist... but they're all a bit shit so there's not much point.

[quote=Woody;3955233]What song is this? Was it a studio recording? Let me know if I've missed any.


It was called FOL and was released before teargarden started

edit:classy editing there

true true lol
seriously

what's with the A Song For A Son hate?
I find it the only listenable song of the whole bunch (along with the two Bonus vinyl tracks)

1. Teargarden Theme - 7/10
2. A Stitch In Time - 6/10
3. Astral Planes - 2/10
4. Widow Wake My Mind - 2/10
5. Owata - 5/10
6. Lightning Strikes - 5/10
7. The Fellowship -5/10
8. Freak - 7/10
9. Tom Tom - 8/10
10. Spangled - 4/10
11. Cottonwood Symphony - 8/10

grade = 5.3/10


"Doomsday Clock" - 7/10
"7 Shades of Black" - 5/10
"Orchid" - 7/10
"That's the Way" - 8/10
"Tarantula" - 8/10
"Starz" -5/10
"United States" - 8/10
"Never Lost" - 7/10
"Bring the Light" - 8/10
"Come On (Let's Go)" - 3/10
"For God and Country" - 3/10
"Pomp and Circumstance" - 2/10

grade = 5.9/10

Oceania

01. Quasar - 7/10
02. Panopticon - 8/10
03. The Celestials - 8/10
04. Violet Rays - 7/10
05. My Love Is Winter 7/10
06. One Diamond, One Heart - 8/10
07. Pinwheels - 9/10
08. Oceania - 6/10
09. Pale Horse - 7/10
10. The Chimera - 6/10
11. Glissandra -6/10
12. Inkless - 8/10
13. Wildflower - 5/10

grade = 7.1

This thread is depressing.

I don't honestly remember what the 75% of the songs on the "album" sound like.

I lost most of my interest after hearing the first EP a couple of times.

i stand by my opinion tbk would've been received better if it i was released as 3-5 songs at once. i don't know what he was thinking... even In Rainbows probably would've flopped with that model.

i thought it was a cool take on the SP formula.. more folksy, retro synths. not balls to the wall amazing and i can understand why alot of people would hate it. i don't think its without problems.. Lightning Strikes might be the most phoned in song i've ever heard. WWMM is mixed atrociously. spangled is a nice little refrain but having to wait months for that was an insult.

i chalk it up to another machina-like "what could have been" curiosity in the catalogue

it would have fared better if it was 1 song every MAX 4 weeks.
at some points it was 4 months between songs... that's a huge hype build up for 1 song. always a disappointment.

I've tried doing this a few years back, and I don't really like what you have here. The inclusion of those instrumental tracks really water down an already homogenized ans sterile "album". Your order also doesn't present any sort of exciting build-up (if that can even be done). You have all the shitty tracks grouped at the beginning that would pretty much alienate the listener, to hit 'eject' before you got to the more interesting tracks. Stitch should be buried as a deep album cut, and you need a more action-packed opening sequence. Then there's a mid-album lull, followed by a rocker to wake you up, and concluding with a schmellow ending track.

What I always settled on was this:

1. Astral Planes
2. The Fellowship
3. Freak USA
4. Tom Tom
5. Spangled
6. A Stitch In Time
7. Widow Wake My Mind
8. A Song For A Son
9. Lightning Strikes
10. Owata

If there were only a few more tracks, there could be a better exposition of this thing. I like those 4 as the first 1/3rd of the "album", but the middle gets sketchy because of a lack of material. We're also missing some sort of "epic" track in the last 1/3rd as well as a hypnotic hard-rock track, both to balance out the bubblegum-grunge. With those unseen tracks, you could use those weaker Teragarden I tracks as transitional songs into the next "movement" of the album, kind of like:

1. Astral Planes
2. The Fellowship
3. Freak USA
4. Tom Tom
5. A Song For A Sun
6. ???
7. Widow Wake My Mind
8. ???
9. A Stitch In Time
10. Spangled
11. Lightning Strikes
12. Owata

Or something like that. Whatever.

I bet if we could hear the dozens of of supposed TBK demos that billy was working with at the start they'd be better than the studio recordings.

Cottonwood and Song for Son are the best two songs to come out of it

Freak and Tom Tom would have made OK B Sides if there were good songs to pair them with.

Is there a good rip of "Teargarden Theme" and "Cottonwood Symphony" available?
I have never been able to locate a torrent.

To be fair, I haven't tried very hard.

You people are fucking pathetic, go listen to another band

Ermm... I hate to tell you this, but I used the tracklisting Billy chose for his EP's. In the order he released them. The only change I made was putting the loose "vol 3" tracks in between them. The only instrumental track is the opener, which was positioned like that on the torrent of vol 1 I used. I think the tracklisting I chose flows pretty well, but shuffling the songs isn't going to solve the album's problems.

That's two people now that have said Song For A Son is good!?

i dont see how anybody could find sfas to be an outright 'bad' song. it was kind of a staurway to heaven ripoff but other than that it was pretty inoffensive. i'd go as far to say it had one of his best studio guitar solos

fuckin gahbage

"Many more to CAAAAAHHHHUUUUUUHHHHHHMMMMMMMMM"

Some of his worst lyrics and delivery, overwrought melody. The solo is wasted. The fairground music after the solo.

"sailed without a MAAAAAHHHHHUUUUUSSSSSSTTTTT"

It's a horrible, horrible track.

It's mediocre. The solos are awesome but that's it

I've always used "Into the Light" from the Backwards Clock Society show as the "Epic" length track when compiling my own Teargarden album. It's from the same time frame and fits the general psychedelic-folk feeling that Billy was trippin' on at the time. I hope in time we get to hear all of those unreleased tracks and maybe the studio shit they made.

This thread inspired me to listen through the SP2 stuff 2007-2012 and only keep what really sticks with me before I go back to completely ignoring SP2.

It ain't looking so good. Most of Z actually but little else after that.:noway: