MINSTREL IN THE GALLERY

I swear I have listened and re-listened to this album over and over again more than any Tull album, desperately trying to effectively force myself to like it. I have played it at full volume when my partner is out the house,I have played it cranked up to 11 while I am on my cross-trainer, I have played it at a more reasonable volume while furiously analyzing the lyrics, I have played it quietly while I am doing the dishes, I have played it even more quietly on my clock/cd player to lull me to sleep (does the trick) and I have compared the original CD pressing with the Steven Wilson remix thinking that maybe I am missing something. Guess what? I just cannot get into this album.I think I have finally worked out the reason why this album seams so two dimensional. One minute Ian Anderson is strumming the guitar and singing quite plaintively and the next minute the band comes crashing in like uninvited guests at a party.That is my overall impression.There is something almost schizophrenic about this album which I simply cannot get used to.In a nutshell it is the arrangements which lets this album down so badly. Having said that,the opening title track follows the quiet acoustic/loud rock template but on this occasion it works brilliantly probably because the whole composition is so well thought out and arranged. After two and a half minutes of Ian Anderson in full Medieval singer-guitarist mode, you can almost imagine him taking a small bow and letting Martin Barre take centre stage and let rip with an absolutely blistering series of riffs and rapid fire arpeggios ably assisted by the rest of the band. Finally the band settles down providing a great driving riff based backing for Ian Anderson singing the rest of the tune slightly more aggressively.Perfect. In fact hands down, this is one of their crowning achievements and a personal favourite by the Band.

Cold Wind To Valhalla also rocks along quite nicely but it is really on Black Satin Dancer that the cracks begin to show.What starts as a pleasant classical-like waltz gets repeatedly interrupted by loud rock interjections which seem out of place especially with David Palmer's elaborate classical string accompaniment also vying for attention. It is like hearing three different groups doing their own thing at the same time.I must admit I do like the way the instrumental break at the middle develops and speeds up before exploding into another killer guitar riff and I particularly like the way the organ an base follow the riff.The rest of the song continues rather chaotically however. Make no mistake the actual playing on this album is superb a lot of the times and frankly rocks harder than any of their previous efforts but the music seriously needed some more thought into the way it was arranged.

The next two (three?) tracks namely Requiem and One White Duck / 010 = Nothing At All, are purely acoustic and are quite pleasant if not particularly memorable but the actual sequencing always seems a bit odd coming right in the middle of the album (Ok last track side one first track side two but you get my drift) almost as if the band were invited to leave for a while and come back when they were needed.Compare this to Aqualung where the acoustic songs were interspersed with the heavier group tracks.

As for the epic length Baker St Muse, I was about to say the less said about it the better but that is probably a bit too mean spirited. However it really cannot be compared to TAAB which was brilliantly thought out and arranged whereas this just comes across as being thrown together or at best as a stream of consciousness.Either way the bottom line is it lacks any really memorable melodies let alone riffs and leaves me at the end (as some other reviewers have noted) almost immediately forgetting what I have just listened to. Always a bad sign.

Fortunately they finally got their act together a couple of years later with the peerless Songs From the Wood and Heavy Horses where the band really gelled.

As for this album, 3 stars-just.

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