STORMWATCH

This is truly a very diverse and well-composed album. You certainly get the feeling that Tull's golden age is coming to an end with tracks more lamentful and, at that, less strictly folklorish than what you might find on HH and definitely SFTW. Harsh, cranking guitar tunes are to be found here, redolent of Pibroch, No Lullaby, and Minstrel (title track): reference particularly Dark Ages and Something's on the Move-- whose actual being put to good use foreshadows what you can hear on BATB. To counteract the intentionally rougher feel of parts of the album, we have tracks like Home and Elegy, which, in themselves, are somewhat mournful, yet, as opposed to directly foreshadowing the storm on the rise, more so (and beautifully) solemnly glorify the good ol' days. The opener (North Sea Oil) and Old Ghosts imbue similar feelings as would be found in HH, while Flying Dutchman harkens back to, again, No Lullaby-- a longer track with a repeating epic sort of theme, with, although one of my favorites, a lot of repeated less epic stuff. Which brings up the question: should long tracks like Dutchman and Dark Ages be truncated to any extent? I venture that there are some repeated elements in each that should either be taken out or reconstructed (as with No Lullaby as well)-- the intro/outro to Dark Ages might do itself good getting clipped shorter, or at least made to be as brilliant as the similarly structuredly themed Heavy Horses track! Overall, a solid album with few noticeable flaws... well balanced-- I didn't mention the bouncing base of the fun-- yet not overly lilting-- Warm Sporran. Not as essential as the top tier of Tull albums-- but a good listen.