Review Summary: After a failed attempt to pander to the critics, Jethro Tull return to doing what they do best: playing progressive rock.
After
A Passion Play, an ambitious and nearly indigestible progressive composition, was massacred by wrathful music critics, Jethro Tull decided to return to playing shorter, more accessible music. This resulted in the release of
War Child, which saw the band trying to achieve mainstream success, but the album gathered even more hatred and condemnation (which was not, this time, entirely undeserved) from the press. Picking the lesser of two evils, the band chose to once again play progressive rock, and soon created
Minstrel In The Gallery, which was not only a fitting return to form, but also is one of the most engaging constituents of Jethro Tull’s discography.
Minstrel In The Gallery relies far less on Martin Barre’s acidic and gritty guitar than previous offerings; instead folky melodies clearly inspired by Elizabethan music are the album’s main attraction, and Ian Anderson’s acoustic guitar, along with David Palmer’s tasteful orchestral arrangements are given a far larger role than usual. One could easily imagine the first half of
Cold Wind To Valhalla, with it’s spirited acoustic strums and pleasant melodies, or the mournful, sentimental
Requiem, among other tunes, being played in a royal court some four or five hundred years ago.
One should not, however, fall under the impression that
Minstrel In The Gallery contains only calm, folky songs-far from it! The untamable Marin Barre still has many opportunities (albeit, not as many as on preceding albums) to inject even the most subdued tunes with bursts of wild energy and ferocious vigor, and moments such as the howling leads in the second portion of
Cold Wind To Valhalla or the desperate, wailing solo in
Black Satin Dancer (which would have been quite at home on a Led Zeppelin album) show the virtuoso in his prime.
One of
Minstrel In The Gallery’s biggest strengths is knowing when to use, or, rather, when not to use, Martin Barre’s guitar. When allowed to play, he energizes any song and gives it a heavier, rawer feel, but he is wisely kept away from tunes such as
Requiem, which are all the better for it. As a result, the album is divided into robust, hard rockers that are infused with melodious acoustic moments, and folky, mellow songs, like the melancholic
One White Duck/0^10=Nothing At All.
Most of the album’s highlights fall into the former category, largely due to the unpredictable changes from acoustic to electric instrumentation which add indescribable amounts of appeal to the tunes.
Cold Wind To Valhalla, an acoustic tune that suddenly explodes into a shrieking aural assault, and
Baker St. Muse, a sixteen-minute long epic made up of many distinct, unique sections, are the album’s centerpieces along with the title track, a pleasant ditty that soon transforms into a corrosive, metallic monster.
Indeed, the album has no weak moments, aside from the entirely superfluous
Grace, a thirty second tune about wishing “Good morning!” to all the Suns, birds, ladies, and breakfasts in the world. It’s really a shame that the piece ends so abruptly, for if it were further developed, it could easily have become quite an entertaining number.
Minstrel In The Gallery saw Jethro Tull once again doing what they do best: playing progressive rock laced with the occasional folky melody; indeed, for the first time in their career, the acoustic moments became the focal points of their music. Two years later,
Songs From The Wood would see the band incorporating a Celtic influence into their music, and then, with the release of
Heavy Horses, Barre’s electric guitar would be almost entirely abolished. As it stands, though,
Minstrel In The Gallery skillfully balances warm folk tunes with hard rock, making it one of the band’s more interesting and accessible progressive albums.
4.6/5
Recommended Songs
Cold Wind To Valhalla
Baker St. Muse
Minstrel In The Gallery
Requiem
Postscript: I will once again recommend potential buyers to invest in the remaster, but this advice is given tentatively. In truth,
Summerday Sands is a fantastic tune that features some of Palmer’s most spirited and exciting arrangements, and
March The Mad Scientist is certainly nice to have, as is
Pan Dance.
However, incomplete live versions of the title track
Cold Wind To Valhalla are included, both of which are cut off before the halfway mark. The former works surprisingly well as a two-minute long folky piece, but the latter, only one-and-a-half minutes long, is clumsily cut off in the middle of the verse. This really is quite a shame, as both of these songs work very well in a live setting.
The remaster will also receive a 4.6/5.
Remastered Edition Recommended Songs
Cold Wind To Valhalla
Baker St. Muse
Minstrel In The Gallery
Requiem
Summerday Sands
