Tangents includes classic Tea Party songs like “The River,” “Sister Awake,” and “Psychopomp,” yet the band didn’t want this album to be named a “Best Of.” Instead, they considered it a showcase of their work so far. The album was released mainly because their record label, EMI Canada, wanted it to bridge the time between the release of Triptych and the new album The Interzone Mantras.
For this project, Martin re-mixed the songs “The River” and “Save Me” (from their Splendor Solis release). In an interview, he gave the following explanation: "Alles, was wir bisher gemacht haben, sollte auch genauso sein, wie wir es gemacht haben. Doch zu der Zeit, als wir "Splendor Solis" eingespielt haben, war ich noch recht unerfahren was die Produktion einer Platte anging. Heute habe ich in der Beziehung viel mehr Know-How und ich wünschte, ich könnte die Scheibe noch mal mit meinem jetzigen Wissen neu produzieren."

Besides “Save Me” and “The River,” the disc also included some other new songs. “Lifeline” and “Waiting On A Sign” were previously available only on the German “Triptych Tour Edition,” and in Canada they were available only as a download from the HMV web site. Both songs originated during the Triptych session, as did the cover of the Rolling Stones’ classic “Paint It Black.” The only really new song was “Walking Wounded,” because “Paint It Black” had been played on a Canadian radio station before. In Chatwood’s opinion, “Walking Wounded” is even more complex than their classic “Sister Awake.” Written in May 2000, the song celebrated its first public performance during a concert with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Tangents was released on November 14th, 2000 in Canada and a couple of weeks later in Australia. The first 100,000 copies also included a booklet with commentary by the band for each song, as well as a unique photo collection. Stuart Chatwood once again created the cover art in collaboration with James St Laurent. Both of them received a Canadian Juno Award for their work.