MINSTREL IN THE GALLERY

The album have as starter what everyone would expect of Jethro Tull looking in retrospective: the band (Barre, Hammond, Evan and Barlow - suberbs) going wild behind nice and structured melodies; introspective lyrics and cynical aproach of Ian Anderson towards... uh... well, life; and nice and softly orchestra writted and conducted by David Palmer. The concept of the album is too well aligned with the music, the artwork and the lyrics (what else progheads would ask!?). For that you just have to take for example the spoken intro of the first track (spoked by David Palmer) and the lyrics of Baker Street Muse.

The title-track of this album is itself an independent masterpiece, with an nicely acoustic introduction of Anderson and then with Martin and Barlow just exploding for four minutes, and then returning to a rock-single song of quality, with a riffy flute that drives the rest of the the track with no problem; "Cold Wind to Valhalla" shows the return to fantasy, the escapism... with an eye in the present, as one of the last lines of the music suggests: "Midnight lonely whisper cries: 'We're getting a bit short on heroes lately' " - oh, and the song is one of Martin and Barlow AGAIN explodes in their instruments; "Black Satin Dancer" resembles a "Aqualung" song, beginning in a acoustic fashion, going really hard-rock later, having a strong flute solo, and ending again in acoustic. The lyrics of this one are deliciously dark.

The acoustic pieces works perfectly, as they were originally separated in the side one and two (the "Requiem" and "One White Duck"), therefore giving some space to breath between them. The epic "Baker Street Muse" is, once again, aligned with the concept of a Minstrel - he has a muse, but he is lonely and bitter, and his muse is actually the street in front of him. This song goes for 16min and have (again!) everything you would expect from Jethro Tull, containing probably the best bass lines that Jefrey made with Tull and amazing keyboards of John Evan (some says he is absent in MITG, I cant see how). If you listen very carefully, the song seems to take you to a trip, then leaving you again in the same place, as we were in a bus ride, forgeting to step down and returning to the same spot were we jump in. To close, a little acoustic piece, "Grace", really nice and again with bitterness, with should not surprise anyone at this point.

Ian Anderson once said the album was with every member of the band working alone, not as a band. Well, I think this made the album works, highlighting all of the members capabilities. The album enter in the progressive rock history, since now we can call our favorite artists truly as "Minstrels".

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