Yeah, I know what you mean. I generally go by the overall quality of the album and how many songs I want to losten to again. Transmission was good in the sense that it was very different, and that is what is/was geat about the Tea Party, they're very different with the sounds and instruments they use. Not mainstream at all, very unique. Their last two albums were dissapointing in a sense because of that, they were much more mainstream rock instead of what made the Tea Party stand out.
Just as an afterthought, I expected Jeff Martins solo album, the one for which he left the band for (my interpretation anyway), was pretty pathetic with one song i liked and the rest being average to shocking (Good time song). That was a big dissapointment for me.
I first saw Tea Party in early 1995, and they were mighty impressive. At that point the they'd just released Edges Of Twilight to follow up Splendour Solis, and to this day I cannot distinguish between which of these two great albums I prefer. I always thought that Jeff Martins sounded like Jim Morrison if he was to do Led Zeppelin songs, an awesome combination.
Transmission was probably the departure from there "that had to happen". If I can get my iPod functioning properly again, like I said I'll go back and have another listen. I've got Triptych too, but don't even know if I've ever listened to it.
I'm still curious to hear Jeff Martins' solo album, though.