This album is probably more intense overall than its predecessor, "Optical Race", but with a slightly lighter mood and more variety toward the end. Paul Haslinger and Edgar Froese continue to show off their wizardry here on electronic keyboards, guitars and drums, and again the emphasis is on progressive, driving compositions that are never boring because they don't just stick to one pattern or texture, but morph and grow with each phrase. This music is undeniably cool and a great motivator for workouts or physical tasks. Standout numbers on "Lily on the Beach" include "Desert Drive", "Crystal Curfew", "Valley of the Kings" and the opening track, "Too Hot for My Chinchilla" (no kidding, that's the title and no, I don't have the slightest idea what it means!). The closing track, "Long Island Sunset", is nice too, with varying tempos and intensities, and accoustic saxophone and flute provided by guest artist Hubert Waldner. If you like "Lily on the Beach", you're sure to like two other Tangerine Dream releases too--"Optical Race" and "Melrose".

Lily on the Beach was the very first TD album I listened to and love it. I like TD style in this Album. As far as other TD albums this album is very different from what I have noticed. TD is pritty cool. I love it, this is very quick pace and yet not annoying. You feel like your going on a Rollercoaster with imagination. Great Job TD!

"Lily on the Beach" dates from 1989, during the period when the Tangerine Dream line-up was reduced to just Edgar Froese and Paul Haslinger (although Jerome Froese makes his first appearance on a TD disc here, as guest guitarist on the track `Radio City', while another guest, Hubert Waldner, contributes some lovely sax and flute playing on the closing track, `Long Island Sunset').

In many ways, this disc represents the very peak of that period in Tangerine Dream's musical history. It contains 13 tracks, totalling some 56 minutes of music in all. Only one track (`Long Island Sunset', 7:11) is longer than 5 minutes -- most clock in at around 4 mins -- but almost without exception each exhibits the delicacy of sound and intricacy of structure that was once synonymous with Tangerine Dream. And taken all together, the listener is treated to a great variety of unusual (yet distinctive) synthesiser voices used with great sensitivity. Percussion lines are heavy and yet varied -- interesting in both style and beat, employing a fascinating array of different percussion voices not only across the album as a whole, but within each track also. In fact, I think the use of percussion on this disc is about the best that Tangerine Dream ever managed: more punchy and used with greater emphasis and prominence than on earlier discs but also used with more variety and to greater effect within the music as a whole than on many of their later discs. The synth programming is generally more interesting than on later discs, too, although many listeners may regard it all as just so much more trademark Dream.

Nothing wrong with that, say I, especially when employed in such strong tunes as these, with great melodies supported by an interesting beat. Don't miss out!

I have to categorically disagree with the naysayers--Lily on the Beach is an important, well-executed recording that brought to the fore the band's evolution from drifting, hypnotic, if not ambling, "sonic tapestries" toward a more refined, sophisticated sound. In LOTB, Haslinger and Froese expand on the their previous two progressions--Underwater Sunlight and Optical Race--to create an album of tighter, well-thought out compositions. While still very much a synthesizer-oriented group (no slight there--I was a keyboardist myself), TD has freely incorporated "the rest of the band" through the inclusion of more complex rhythms and percussion, an occasional sax, greater use of sampling technology, and most striking, raw, almost heavy metal, guitar solos on a few tracks (played by Edgar's son, Jerome--now a full-time member of the band), which provide a welcome punch the mood where needed.

The tracks run the gambit of styles from the light, whimsical "Gecko" to the driving, aggressive rock of "Radio City" to longing, romantic, saxophone-tinged strains of "Long Island Sunset." All in all, the band's improved compositional skills now highlight quality over quantity and have oriented the compositions toward a more progressive rock sound without losing the etheral spirit that made TD so good.

This in an essential part of any progressive-oriented music library.

There are different kinds of fans of Tangerine Dream music, so to understand my reviews, you must understand my tastes. I prefer their later works, with songs that are harmonious, rhythmic, lyrical, and "pretty." Their first excellent album for me was Underwater Sunlight. You might find (by reading lots of reviews) that the people who love TDream's early work dislike the later albums; people who like the later albums don't like the early stuff. I am the 2nd type. Of my 22 or so TDream albums so far, the greatest ones (in approximate order) are: Le Parc, Underwater Sunlight, Architecture in Motion, Private Music, Goblins' Club, Optical Race, Melrose, Lily on the Beach. OK albums are: Tang-go, Force Majeure, Exit. Unpleasant albums are: Turn of the Tides, Rockoon, Stratosfear, Phaedra, Atem, Alpha Centauri, Elect. Meditation, or anything else pre '83. I love track 3, "Alaskan Summer." "Blue Mango Cafe" (#11) is lots of fun! Track 5 constantly leaves me hanging -- very upsetting. The rest of the album is quite good! TDream fans who share my tastes MUST try out Patrick O'Hearn.