For the 7th entry of “The Best of Tangerine Dream”, I want to paint you a picture of where I was as I first listened to this striking song. (A song! By Tangerine Dream?!)

It was 2007. I was commuting from Santa Rosa, California to San Francisco for the first time for a new position. It was a two-hour (!!) bus ride each way. I had my headphones with me of course and I was listening to music. A lot. (And also watching episodes of LOST…)

One influx of new music: Madcap’s Flaming Duty, the first big project produced by the then-new Tangerine Dream lineup of Edgar Froese, Thorsten Quaeschning (Thorsten “Q” as we call him), Linda Spa, Iris Camaa, and Bernhard Beibl, along with Christian Hausl as the vocalist. I distinctly remember traveling over the Golden Gate Bridge—the typical foggy/sunny weather of the coastline creating a patchwork quilt of light and shade over the water—while listening to Shape My Sin, a fabulous song written by Thorsten Q for the album.

Madcap’s Flaming Duty consists of songs set to lyrics which are essentially poetry—one having been written by Sir Philip Sidney of the Elizabethan court! But Shape My Sin is probably my favorite of the bunch. The arrangement is catchy and memorable, Hausl’s vocal range and prowess is on full display, and the lyrics written by Christian Torsa are simply delicious. Feast your ears on verse like this:

Touching your lips,
Describes a fairy tale
Until these thoughts are gone
I’ve lost you my love

and

I can’t describe the fear inside
Towards insanity you
Are the one that I want
These seamless words they are gone

Read the full lyrics here.

Not everything on the album rises to this level of quality in terms of production, but overall the album is a gem in Tangerine Dream’s vast discography and one I have fond memories of first listening to over the shimmering turquoise waters of the San Francisco Bay.