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

Another super remix set. The bonus tracks sound alot better without the reverb. Inverness Sleeper is an excellent new track. The album sounds slightly better too. A great double album worth plus a few more extra tracks. Similar with the Stormwatch, Aqualung, Warchild sets. Heaps of excellent extra songs. No other band matches Tull for amount of quality material. Astounding band and the only band in history to have this expansive book set collection and there's a reason for it. They're the ultimate band always combining prog elements with their music. Ian the genius deserves to relax in his giant mansion while new fans discover this amazing band

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.