Minstrel in The Gallery - last really great Jethro Tull album ?

The remaster is brighter and fuller sounding which compensates for the thinner sound of the Japan CD, but as I said more detail is revealed on the remaster without much effort from the listener, meaning you can always use your own treble & bass adjustments or use an equalizer and punch out the middle of any of the CD versions.
Repeat, I've yet to hear a neutral sounding version of this title.

 

I've always wondered if the upside down reverse was deliberate. Do the cds have it that way? I currently only have the US lp.

 

No the CD's don't.
If you flip from the top or bottom everything is right with the LP.
Side to side flipping that's what messes it up.

 

Yep, I agree that "Minstrel in the Gallery" was the last really great Jethro Tull album.

I think Side 2 of "Minstrel in the Gallery" and Side 2 of "A Passion Play" were Tull at their absolute peak.

"Songs from the Wood" was a good album, but half of it was pedestrian imo, especially the long and boring Pibroch.

 

Can't do without Pibroch (Cap In Hand). It's not long enough.

 

When you're right you're dead on.

 

Here is my take:
Minstrel = Great
To Old To Rock and Roll... = Good
Songs From The Wood = Great
Heavey Horses = Great
Stormwatch = Great
"A" = Fair
"Broadsword" = Good
The rest is too spotty to rate, particularly because Ian's voice was shot after the awful "Under Wraps" album.

 

Love that song...

 

Broadsword is great with the bonus tracks, my favourite 1980's Tull album.

Under Wraps with the vinyl track order is fantastic. There I've said it.

 

My words too. Under Wraps is the worst album Tull album. I like Crest of a Knave too, but everything after this is mostly dead boring for me.

 

vive la différence

I'll drive everyone nuts with my love for Under Wraps and Ian Anderson's Walk Into Light. My Bookends!

 

Differences are necessary. Without them, this forum wouldn't have any meaning. Opinions are important.
Don't get it wrong tootull. I love Jethro Tull, from This Was to Broadsword. That's it.

 

I know. That's why I'm grinning.

 

I quite envy your love for all Tull stuff. It's good. I don't have it. I can't. Even for artist such as Bob Dylan or Peter Hammill or Pink Floyd or..... I can't like all of theirs albums. There's not so much by them I don't like but they are.

 

Speaking of This Was to Broadsword. I almost quit at Minstrel when Too Old came out. Too Old being an album that I like today.+ Being from Great Britain, Songs From the Wood brought me right back into the Tull love.

The only song that I don't like by Tull is A Small Cigar because of the lyrics...play anything and I'm happy and smiling...that's what it's all about.
The thing is I would be as my wife says, a bigger Beatles/McCartney/Wings fan if not for Tull.

Having a better half that likes Tull as much as me helps, too.

 

Oh yeah. I don't like A Small Cigar lyrics, but it has good melody and structure. Mistrel took me quite long to get into but from then I was overwhelmed with its beauty.

Stormwatch is very important album for me from unknown reasons. I don't remember why, or what asociations it came from. I like its moody, dark, cold and sad atmosphere. Just like its cover. It's winter.

Songs from the Wood is spring and Heavy Horses summer/autumn. I feel it this way. If somebody aimed a gun on my head and I had to choose one Tull LP, it would be Heavy Horses. If for nothing else but Moths.

 

Awesome is the word

Stormwatch was such an awesome tour - the concert at Maple Leaf Gardens had a huge atmosphere. The songs are welcome on a cold winter's night just for that very atmosphere.
Moths is beautiful.

 

Hey, I love these two, too, tootull!

 

Kindred spirit

I don't know that it's very important for me but I do find myself craving Tull (often, hehe) and particularly (once in a while) Stormwatch. When I put on HH or LITP or Stand Up or some of my other top echelon Tull albums and find it's not cutting the mustard, I say...ahhhh it's Stormwatch time. On occasion, it's the only Tull that will do.

 

Very interesting! Dr. Bogenbroom.

I'm a needle on a spiral in a groove. And the turntable spins as the last waltz begins. And the weather-man says something's on the move. - Ian Anderson

 

I thought their last best was Minstrel, but took a liking to Rock Island. IMO, their best remain Benefit, Aqualung and Thick as a Brick. I saw Tull do Aqualung in Virginia Beach and saw Thick as a Brick the following year at Virginia Tech.

 

His lyrics may be most personal on Stand Up -- several songs about his relationship with his parents and other personal things... to say nothing about the great tunes on it as well (though my fave album is Benefit).

To get back to the OP's original question, I agree that Minstrel is the last really great Tull album, though I think there are several great songs on Stormwatch...
.

 

I agree completely with Baron Von Talbot's assessment of this CD.

On my system only a handful of CDs sound as good as nice vinyl, and, believe it or not, I think this CD tops my UK -1U / -1U LP (and don't even try, 'cause I ain't gonna sell the LP! )

Steve's time would be much better spent on Benefit!

 

Benefit might challenge even our Steve; it's a truly odd recording, with everything sort of small-sounding and squeezed into the midrange.

But boy does it ever exude atmosphere, that album. A real time-and-place definer.

My fave Tull album.