WAR CHILD

The Tull success with the public will not decrease with this work (at least in the US) where it peaked at Nr. 2 in the Bilboard. Their relations with the specialized press though were not at their peak (to say the least). what will be their answer to the global critics of the "specialized press" ?

The title track is good and provides some hope about this work. The heavy classical arrangements (from the Philomusica of London ensemble) and the use of some weird intruments like in "Queen and Country" and "Ladies" are rather annoying and a bit "too much". Again, I do not really understand why Ian was so found in adding such stuff to the Tull's album.

Back to the classic with "Back Door Angels" (the longest track on this album). It is a great hard-rock song : very powerful but also with short, almost folk passages (during the intro). A combination that all Tull fans love. The highlight here. "Sea Lion" could have been a strong piece of rock (but, again, what's the use of the accordeon and the ensemble on this track) ?

"Skating Away" is a good average track and are quite acceptable; but still we are waiting for a true highlight. As far as I am concerned (but I guess I am not the only one) the best track of the album is "Bungle in the Jungle". It will be released as a single. The melody is quite good : folk / hard at times. Some orchestration as well but not too much. The full lyricism of the Tull is noticeable. Finally, we get a highlight (it was about time).

"Only Solitaire" is a short accoustic and nice moment. "Light and sweet". Not pompous nor boring. "Third Hooray" is a strange track : combining medieval and hard rock sounds. A bizarre combination (if they should have left out the medieval stuff this could have been a good track). "Two Fingers" is very good number (but again what's the use of this bloody accordion) ? These were the ten original tracks of the vinyl album.

Needless to say that the remastered version, including seven bonus tracks (over 26 minutes) is worth a listen. Several tracks are absolutely no fillers and could have been elected to make it for the original album without any problem.

Some restrictions though : revisited version of "Warchild Waltz", is a pure classic track, played almost entirely by the Philomusica of London and I really do not like it. "Quartet" is another classic piece of music but for this one the band was backing the ensemble but this is neither a great composition.

"Paradise Steakhouse" is one of the best track of the whole : on par with "Back Door Angels" (IMO the best track of the original album). It is a mystery for me that this one was not selected to appear on the original version. Jethro Tull hard-rock (I like this side very much) at his best. The legend (?) will say that the Tull, on purpose, in reaction of the poor reactions of the press for "A Passion Play" will deliberately leave some good tracks out of the initial release. I can not confirm but when you listen to some of the bonuses, you can only be positively impressed.

Alternative version for "Sea Lion" is not bad but inferior to the original one (kind of "musicals" version with lots of talks). As its title warns "Rainbow Blues" is a heavy blues song like they used to produce in their early days. On top of that, we get some additional "great" orchestral features as well. As you might know, this is not my cup of tea. "Glory Row" won't be passed on to gloryy but "saturation" is again a good track that would have deserved to make the album.

When you listen to the remastered version of "War Child", there was apparently a way to make a good album out of the seventeen songs available from those studio sessions. I would rate the remastered version three stars (only two stars for the original one). Five out of ten would be more accurate. This is another typical example of the limitation of a five stars rating : I rounded up this one while I rounded down "A Passion Play" : both ending on three stars. Maybe, one day, before I die, we 'll be able to rate on a ten star scale. I really would appreciate...