Jethro Tull
Stormwatch

Swan song for Jethro Tull, we are in 1979 and the band reaches the end of the line with an album that exudes creative exhaustion and detachment in interpersonal relationships. Considered the third of an openly Folk trilogy, actually, this album seems to me to recover the general sound explored in BURSTING OUT. Already in HEAVY HORSES Anderson had spoken of various misunderstandings, the collaborative magic found again in SONGS FROM THE WOOD had already faded and even more, the mood in STORM is low due to JOHN GLASCOCK's health problems, here present only in three tracks, ELEGY, FLYING DUTCHMAN and ORION... In fact, he never went on stage with the band, but he was able to perform live at least DARK AGES, already ready in a first arrangement in the HEAVY HORSES Tour.

The Album:

Anderson recalls how during that period he stayed at home reading newspapers and magazines, very engrossed in his affairs, and therefore attentive to the weather situation given his entrepreneurial commitment (Anderson is involved in salmon farming). He doesn’t speak of this album as desolate and cold; in his view, NORTH SEA OIL is a piece of great spirit; no track is meant to have a political background but at least a little cynical and sarcastic is indeed. Unfortunately, the band seems tired, perhaps also due to the various live commitments, and maybe that creative spontaneity has been somewhat lost; they focus a lot on instrumentals. It's evident that these songs have been too polished in the studio because listening to them live, they really gear up (ORION and SOMETHING'S ON THE MOVE). DARK AGES, already performed live, is slightly revised, given the worsening of bassist John Glascock's problems, Anderson himself thinks to replace him on bass, and live the task will fall to Dave Pegg. The whole album stands between rock and some acoustic lines, the dual keyboardist formula overshadows John Evan, who on a compositional level disappears precisely to make room for David Palmer. But the most dissatisfied seems to be Palmer himself, who at the time gave theory lessons to Anderson. The '70s sound is somewhat lost; they go a lot with synthesizers and simulators to create atmosphere; Evan recovers the piano. By now, you can feel the slightly cold and almost cerebral execution of the Live performances of that period, and in my opinion, the album suffers because of it. Anderson's voice sounds filtered and somewhat metallic, definitely a bit low and perhaps worn by the many concerts; his work on bass is excellent (note the double picking, which seems to be his trademark). Some insinuate that his track was slowed down to allow him to record without difficulty, nonsense, the reverb on his bass is due to it being sent into a slight Overdrive and with a bit of Flanger to roughen what seems to be a MUSICMAN BASS, which Glascock was using lately...

The instrumentals (a strong point of the band) could have been to the album's advantage, but instead, they end up increasing the general confusion. ELEGY is an honest, melodic-melancholic instrumental piece of composition MADE IN PALMER, which I think was composed in honor of his father, only later dedicated to the late Glascock, but it has little to do with Jethro Tull. WARM SPORRAN is almost a filler; from this album, the eclectic PROG themes disappear a bit since even Dark Ages seems like a piece from the HEAVY HORSES sessions, which also included WORKING JOHN, WORKING JOE, later re-recorded in the subsequent A.

It seems that the key piece existed and was a real Prog Suite with an impossible rhythm that drummer Barrie Barlow loved, APOCALYPSE, a piece composed by Palmer. Surely the fact that Anderson considered more than sufficient one song (ELEGY) in the name of the keyboardist (the piece was rehearsed) led to it being abandoned into nothingness, and the other songs of that period? A STITCH IN TIME comes from those sessions and will be released as a single along with SWEET DREAMS BURSTING OUT version, KING HENRY'S MADRIGAL is another instrumental with PEGG on bass I think arranged by Palmer again, it will end up on an EP that also takes tracks from SONGS FROM THE WOOD.

Weary album but still an album by JETHRO TULL so worth having to understand the development of sound and creativity. From this album on, there will be lineup changes and therefore in writing as well as in sound, great work for being a work but too weak to carry the JETHRO TULL name at all.

Live:

As far as I know, this album was completely abandoned already at the end of the Tour 79-80, where DARK AGES, ELEGY, OLD GHOST, HOME, ORION, DUN RINGILL, and SOMETHING'S ON THE MOVE were performed; later on, only DUN RINGILL had a little more space live, the others remained a meteor.