THE BROADSWORD AND THE BEAST

Ok 80s new kind of music and maybe Ian is really too old to rock, but surprise B&B is a recall to the past, in a certain way it remind me something about old good JT, oh there isn't a shining gem like the 69-72 Tulls, but is near the post Brick and Ministrel (at least in some tunes and sounds) and sure Warchild is worst... so? Well so this is a nice oasi in the desert or earlyer Tulls works and maybe the last album I've listen to be as good to capture my attention (sorry Ian I'm going for Porcupine Tree at the moment, can u forgive me?) so lets start to talk about this Beast...

The beginning of this album is a quite nice song, mostly a redundant one, since the corus Beastie! keep the listener to the fact that he have a beast, you have a beast and maybe the beast too have his own beast that cannot be beated (got the redundant part?), even with all these pets and doubts Beastie is strong and keep a living interest on me even after a lot of spins, after this introduction we got a sequence of some good songs that reminds the old good JT, from Clasp to Flying Colours and Marching Band till Broadsword (part 2 of the album) where in a couple of minutes we ha ve a revoluction: Broadsword is a solid track in the album and even if it's still redundand like Beastie (yep here I'm redundant too) is a perfect track to start the new side, too bad in the side 2 we have a lot less good words for B&B... Pussy Willow & Watching... bring some pop to the disc... even if Willow can appear good at the start it's a bit boring and empty after u know the song (nothing special to listen really even if u include Ian voice), the last 2 songs (1 and an half) are excellent, Seal Driver (good guitar solo) is like a reprise of Broadsword's dark side while Cheerio is the coda of the album a reprise from earlyer tracks like Grace, good as it's simple.

Let's see the stars now... at the beginning I thought it worth a special star for the sleeve, the old fashioned sounds and go on... but I'll give it the star only for the classic side, where JT are there but u can't see the first Tulls. Nice work on it Ian! Lyrics & Music: as I cannot make a rating for Mike Oldfield's lyrics (Oh nice another synth that is talking... say mama!) I cannot rate music from JT without think on the text, over their meaning and so on... that mean I will give it 3 stars: 2 for Cheerio and the first part 1 for Broadsword & Seal

So regular 3/5+1/1 bonus we have a good 4/5 on this album.

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