STORMWATCH

A tragic death of a band member certainly took it toll; and it's obvious when you're listening to this album. But not because Ian wrote so good songs that will awake emotions in you. No. Simply because ideas stuck somewhere in a cold swamp on the North, surrounded by howling winds. The irony here is the main theme of the album; energy crisis. It's much better represented with the weakness of the material then with the actual artistic representation; it's simply weak. I mean, really weak, "Heavy Horses" wasn't an album to write home about, but at least it was focused, which "Stormwatch" certainly isn't.

This album is a good example for fans - who are often forgetting to approach to the songwriter as to a human being then to compare eras, periods, line-ups or particular sounds of decades. Instead of bold, coherent statement ( if you are a TULL fan you know what I'm talking about) we have just a whisper of idea here, a flash of nice interpretation there, and that's about it.

Don't get me wrong - considering the circumstances, this album doesn't lack dignity, but unfortunately lacks everything else, and it's Tull's ultimate step into a boredom. If you want simple, catchy verses that you can hum along, forget it. "Dark Ages", maybe? "Orion"? They're simply not on the same level with...anything. If you're looking for a something musically more complex, demanding, go search somewhere else. Even in the 80's: "A" is actually much more daring, although it's also lacking focus, at least there are moments to scratch your head about. That's exactly that line of connection - that relation "Stormwatch" - "A" I was talking about in the previous paragraph; human being lacking inspiration, rather than "wrong" sounds in a "wrong" decade. "Stormwatch" contained a classic line-up, mind you; fortunately for us; they disbanded and band changed the path drastically, because obviously there wasn't that certain something.

So, there's no point to moan about it, because band moved, changed and continued to evolve. Sometimes results will be much worse, but as we all know, Anderson will still be able to offers us occasional pleasant surprises in the years to come. That chapter can be closed, with underlined "Dun Ringill" for it's beauty and "Elegy" in memoriam for John Glascock.