HEAVY HORSES

Often compared to SFTW's as its little brother, Heavy Horses has much to differ as well. Though the pastoral album cover may hint at the countryside, the London-based new studio with all the new technologies of the times

The opening Mouse Police (cats in barns), the album starts rather fast, brilliantly with a very fiendish ending (though studio trickery may harm this pie-ce with repeated listens). The following Acres Wild (self explanatory Scott celebration) and the almost 8-min No Lullaby (fear of pastoral spirits) are both high-calibre, but fail to send you through the roof in joy. The short sarcastic in style Moths and he self-explanatory Journeyman closes the A-side in average fashion.

Opening the flipside, Brown Mouse (them again ;-) is proving a little arduous, while the delightful Rover (one of the highlights of the album) provides a little breathing space. The slow-developing but lengthy title track is the other highpoint of the album, followed by the very acoustic Weathercock. A little sour note is that the middle of the album may appear a little weaker when listened in the Cd format.

As for the two bonus tracks, both are of the usual quality of all the Tull remasters. Both Hard Times and Broadford Bazaar (especially the beautiful later) are tracks that fit the album's soundscapes as if they were never bonus tracks. But again, it's not as if this mighty album needed not such a help to remain essential and very representative of mid-70's Tull works. Although not as strong as SFTW, but still is a quite fine and definitive Tull statement.