MINSTREL IN THE GALLERY

The pinnacle of Jethro Tull's crappy pop folk production! This album is a "bastardization" of authentic folk music. It only features cheesy pop ballads for Christmas days. The snobbish accent of Ian Anderson has never been so painful. The self title track is a conventional, almost puritan "Christian" folk ballad. Same remark for "Cold Wind Valhalla" with its very cheap atmosphere. "Black Satin Dancer" is a symphonic, pseudo neo classical song: one more time it's too naive and gentle. No surprise with the rest of the album. For a better appreciation of prog folk tapestries of sound I advise listeners to go on the medieval, pagan inflected and acid folk side of Teutonic bands: notably Parzival and Ougenweide. This band really need to re-learn the basics before serving the mass with common mediocrity. Musically speaking the band died after his original bluesy folk fusion (this was / stand up)