If there is one thing The Tea Party deserves all the respect they can get for, it would be how immensely ambitious the Canadian trio have been pretty much from the beginning. ‘Splendor Solis’ can be seen as their debut album, since the self-titled album released two years prior was more or less an ascended demo, as evidenced by no less than four songs being re-recorded for this particular album. But instead of showing promise as a young, budding band, The Tea Party goes all-out in their rock meets folk music from all over the world ambitions, with often spectacular results.

One of the most interesting things about ‘Splendor Solis’ is the interaction between acoustic and electric guitars. This has long been a trademark of frontman Jeff Martin, but ‘Splendor Solis’ might just be characterized by the most creative use of acoustic guitars in the band’s discography. Martin hardly ever goes full-on folk, save for some instrumental passages, like the gorgeous ‘Winter Solstice’. Instead, the acoustics – often twelve-strings – and the clean and overdriven guitars go hand in hand to create a large palette of atmospheres, making most of the louder sections seem much heavier than they actually are. The use of percussion by Jeff Burrows is very tasteful.

While The Tea Party’s sound was still very much in development when the material on ‘Splendor Solis’ was written, their blend of seventies hardrock, psychedelia, folk and other world music is already admirably accomplished here. Also, Martin’s rich, deep baritone isn’t quite at the level of 1995’s excellent ‘The Edges of Twilight’ yet, but he creates so many shades of vocal color here that it hardly matters. Everything from near-whispers to outbursts of anger illustrate the music and the lyrics perfectly. Admittedly, the lively, dynamic production of ‘Splendor Solis’ does a lot of good in that department as well.

All of this would have been completely meaningless if the songwriting wasn’t so great. The brooding inensity of the powerful ‘The River’ is the perfect way to open the album, ‘Save Me’ is a dark, menacing epic, while ‘Raven Skies’ and ‘The Majestic Song’ are so creative in weaving tapestries of atmospheric riffs that they have to be heard to be believed. ‘Sun Going Down’ is a country blues song dominated by Martin’s twelve-string acoustic slide guitar brought up-to-date by Burrows’ hard-hitting drumming and its wild electric finale. ‘A Certain Slant of Light’ is a lesson in dynamics, with the transitions going so smoothly you’ll hardly notice how much heavier the chorus is than the rest of the song.

‘Splendor Solis’ might not be as impressive a work as ‘The Edges of Twilight’ would be two years later, but that album could not have been made without the confident and fearless experimentation heard on its predecessor. ‘Splendor Solis’ is a highly engaging album that still manages to surprise me after all these years of listening to it. It has been put together with as little care for musical trends as possible and, as a result, has ended up sounding fresh and exciting all the way through. Highly recommended if you would like to hear a seventies-inspired rock band taking a love for world music further than usual.

P.S.: See how easy it is to write a review on The Tea Party without mentioning Led Zeppelin and The Doors? It’s almost as if they don’t sound as much like those bands as lazy reviewers would want you to believe…

Recommended tracks: ‘The River’, ‘Raven Skies’, ‘Sun Going Down’, ‘The Majestic Song’