TOO OLD TO ROCK 'N' ROLL: TOO YOUNG TO DIE!

Seriously, the first thing I thought of when I heard the string- dominated slow-paced schlager which is the title track was the aforementioned pop song contest (The Chequered Flag manages to sound even more schlager-y). I must mention that I like pre-80s Eurovision (everyone has their guilty pleasures), so this is not a problem for me, but I'm guessing that it could put off many fans expecting some very 'progressive' sounds on this album, as there are almost none. The problems I have with the album, though, are neither the orchestrations (the occasional cheesiness of which actually fits the songs and the concept well) nor Ian's (already) decaying voice (also kind of contributing to the 'beat-up rocker' image of the main character), but the overall lack of inspiration in the songs presented. There are some quirky ideas, but they are overcome by the overall musical numbness. The production is 'War Child'-ish (with tape-delayed vocals throughout the album), which is also not a good thing at all. This albums' strong points, as is the case with the majority of Tull albums, are the witty, sardonic lyrics and the instrumental performance (despite there is almost no flute on this album, even less than on 'War Child'!), the latter being pretty wasted on the aforementioned general unimaginativeness of the songs ('Salamander', for example, features some wild acoustic guitar work from Ian, but the tune is just an inferior rework of 'Cold Wind To Valhalla' from 'Minstrel in the Gallery'). The songs I enjoy are the title track and 'Taxi Grab', with its quirky 'broken' blues feeling (and some harmonica!).

Similarly to what I said in my 'War Child' review, two stars, as fans will bother to look for those few interesting moments which make this album worth. I'd also recommend tracking down the (pre-recorded in the studio and mimed) staging of the album from early 1976, featured in the TV show 'Supersonic' (if not for anything else, then just for seeing Ian Anderson singing the title track with a beer mug in his hand).

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