Track Listing

1. Hipdeep Family Intro
2. ABC
3. Weeping Chandelier
4. Jesus On The Windshield
5. Besotted Mother
6. Gin
7. Learned Pig
8. Hertha Strubb
9. Dreadful Domesticity
10. QRV
11. Histoire De Kay
12. Trampled Lilly
13. Hipdeep Family

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64798 in Music
• Released on: 2003-05-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Dimensions: .24 pounds
• Running time: 45 minutes

Customer Reviews

fantastically morbid
I hadn't heard of The Tiger Lillies till a friend told me I might like them. I looked on Amazon and saw that they had done an album based on Edward Gorey's stories and illustrations and as he is a favourite of mine I had to buy it. On first listen Martin Jaques voice is alarming, a mixture of Hinge and Bracket, Kate Bush and someone who has been or is being castrated. But it is absolutely spot on in so many ways, his voice really does get over perfectly the mood of the stories and the music is fantastic. I thought first that it would be one of those albums I get out every now and again, but I keep listening to it and loving it more. There are some friends I definitely wouldn't recommend it to, they would think it was the closest thing to hell in sound, but I won't hesitate to recommend it to my more open minded friends.

Gingingingingingingingingingingin gin gin GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!
When I question, while out in company,

'Have you heard of the Tiger Lillies?'

I get one of two responses:
1. 'Eh?'
or
2. A slow accelerating smile that breaks into a large grin as the full memory and character of this bunch is awakened.

They are glorious in their insanity. Always tricky to define and do them justice but are more than worth the effort. Think League of Gentleman, Georgian cabaret and Victorian brothels and it only begins to help. If I ever wanted to go drunkenly carousing down cobbled streets and get press-ganged into service with the kings shilling I would do it to this lot.

On this outing they are sensibly rounded off with the drawing room sounds of the Kronos Quartet and draw on the work of an obscure and now demised inspired sideways thinker Edward Gorey, with ballads of children locked in the attic, prostitution and mothers ruin all encased in a falsetto voice. I could go on forever trying to make a description fit so instead I can only say that I am thoroughly on the mission of buying their elusive back catalogue and invite you to join me.

gorey
As any Tiger Lillies fan will concur, Edward Gorey has, in this collaboration of The Tiger Lillies and The Kronos Quartet, A collection of his works that will be treasured forever. The Tiger Lillies are at their finest, with The Kronos Quartet adding an orchestral depth to the melancholic and Oompah tracks equally. Martyn Jaques certainly knows how to bring the melodramatic words alive and make the humorous words,deadly!