MINSTREL IN THE GALLERY

The fourth Tull album I have heard (behind Aqualung, Thick as a Brick, A Passion Play, and Songs from the Wood) is a solid 4 star album. Most of the stuff here is great, but some of it is kind of boring, but none of it is actually bad.

It starts off with the very midieval acousticness of the title track. Great melodies here, although, as one person has said, the melody does so many little twists and turns that it sounds like Ian Anderson is making it up as he goes along, but for the most part it works well. About half way through, this song changes on you from midieval acousticicity to... hard rock of the best kind! It still retains that classic Tull feel all the way through, and it is all in all a great song. 9/10

Cold Wind to Valhalla is a very cool song I think. I love the viking/midieval imagery, and it still has some of Tull's very original personal lyrics ('We're getting a bit short on heros lately...'). Cool melody, although the bends from Martin Barre during parts of the verse sound a little offkey to me... but it is still a pretty cool song. 8.5/10

Black Satin Dancer is a very original tune. It has some very romantic sounding personal lyrics at the beginning, along with the usual flute and acoustic guitar, but all of a sudden, it switches to a rather heavy, operatic sounding section, which sonds very unique and cool. The only downside to this song is that Ian Anderson does some goofy gibberish talking in between flute notes, kind of like that one part in Locomotive Breath- you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, it's like that except ten times more annoying, and ten times goofier, and ten times more exxagerrated. Oh well, it lasts for about 10 seconds all together, so this is another good one. 8/10

Requiem is a slow little song, very emotional, very sad sounding. The vocals are very gentle and quiet. Very English lyrics about 'Walking along the strand. This song is pleasant and nice sounding, a little boring, but not skip worthy. 7.5/10

One White Duck/Nothing at all is very much in the same vein as the previous track, but I like the melodies here more, and the lyrics as well. The One White Duck section contains interesting orchestration from the violinists, and good melodies. The Nothing at all part is what I like best though. I love the melody, and the lyrics are very personal and English. Great song. 8.5/10

Now, Baker Street Muse is the song you will buy the album for. Wow! The only Tull songs better than this are Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play, and since those contain all the varied dynamics of a whole album, that is to be understood. Anyway, this song has several sections. The opening section has one of Tull's best melodies, up there with the ones from Thick... and APP. The chorus throws a little twist in there, with some mideastern heaviness after each line. The pig-me and the whore section is very short and cheerful sounding, despite its rather graphic sexual imagery. However, done in Tull's personal style with such a catchy infectious melody, it works terrifically to describe the doings of low end society. A Nice Little Tune is very short and well, nice. Catchy stuff. Crash Barrier Waltzer is very sad and melancholy, great Victorian-esque English sounding lyrics. Oooh. Then comes the best part of the song, th beginning vocal section of Mother England Reverie. Very sad sounding melody, very haunting. The song continues with a very classic rockeqsue melody with a Tull twist to it. ANyway though, the song ends after the first great melody and chorus. All in all a very AWESOME song indeed. Great mixture of victorian Englishness and Mideastern heavy riffing. Great story and feelings too. 10 well deserved points/10.

Grace is a very short pleasant little song. Love the happy lyrics, and its just great. Short and sweet. 10/10, but its very short.

So all in all, a very good album. Definitely not as good as Thick or Passion Play, or Aqualung for that matter. But very good all the same. Standouts are the title track, One White Duck/Nothing at all, BAKER STREET MUSE, and Grace. I said at the beginning that this is a four star album. Well, its actually 4.5, and I would fix the top, but I don't know how to turn this Overstrike thing off, so here you are. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.