THE BROADSWORD AND THE BEAST (THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY MONSTER EDITION)

As is often the case, I can take or leave the "associated recordings" in these deluxe sets, but the Steven Wilson tune-up of the original studio album is grand and there's a wonderful live set presented. Here, it doesn't present one single gig, but instead assembles a wonderful setlist out of a clutch of performances in Germany in late April 1982, with the fresh new Broadsword material given a fresh live rendition which overcomes some of the chilliness of the studio versions. The performances of older material are also wonderful - the band by this point had such an expansive and wonderful repertoire that any particular cross-section of their work yields absolute magic, and the song selection here fits the atmospheric vibe of the Broadsword album wonderfully.