THE BROADSWORD AND THE BEAST

By the time this album was released, punk and new wave dominated music industry all over the world. Many prog bands collapse, musically, or being influenced with the stream power of new wave and punk. I only had a chance to spin the cassette of "Broadsword and The Beast" one time only and put it back at my rack. I'd rather listening to Marillion's "Script For A Jester's Tear" or "Fugazi" which were released around the same period. That was the time when my conviction about prog rock existence diminished except for Marillion (and later I knew IQ, Pallas, Pendragon as well). In an article featured at our local news paper KORAN TEMPO dated 15 April 2006 there was an interesting short review about Marillion Script that well describe the early 80s era. The article, written by this site's Prog Reviewer kunangkunangku (Purwanto Setiadi) clearly stated that it's hardly denied that Script stand out to tell the world that the kind of music they play and those who inherited does still exist in the global wave of punk and new wave. Thanks to Marillion who saved prog music in the tough times of early 80s and also thanks to EMI, a major label who dare to take Marillion with that kind of music which has become legend in the prog community!

Well, that long introduction might give you the right context by which Broadsword was issued - not giving you long excuses on why I rarely listened to this album. If you face the same situation like me in the early 80s while you had better option in the kind of music you like, you might have done the same think like me. Probably. Broadsword is not a bad album at all but it's weak as compared to early work of the band and about the same quality with previous album "A". The difference with "A" is that this album has more dazzling flutework overlaid on top of electric instrumentations like keyboard. "Fallen on Hard Times" is a good rocker with beautiful rhythm and aggressive flute work. "Flying Colours" is another interesting track. Almost all songs are composed in the same style. "Broadsword" is also nice one with powerful vocal of Ian Anderson and of course his flute work. One song that bores me is "Pussy Willow" especially on its repeated chords which do not show any variety of music.

Overall, it's not the best album to start with Jethro Tull even though this is not a bad one. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW