The Broadsword and the Beast is the 14th studio album by Jethro Tull, released on 10 April 1982 and according to Ian Anderson in the liner notes of the remastered CD, contains some of Jethro Tull's best music. It mixes electronic sound, provided by Peter-John Vettese (a characteristic that would be explored further on the next album Under Wraps), with acoustic instruments. The album is a cross between the synthesiser sound of the 1980s and the folk-influenced style that Tull had in the previous decade. The Broadsword and the Beast is one of Steve Hackett's favorite albums.
This 40th anniversary edition is a 4CD+2xDVD package. The album has been remixed by Steven Wilson, with his stereo mix appearing on the first CD. Three further CDs offer a host of unreleased recordings and a previously unreleased live concert performed in The Netherlands in March 1980.
Stormwatch marked the end of an era in Jethro Tull's history, as the last album on which longtime members Barriemore Barlow, John Evan, and David Palmer participated, and the final appearance of bassist John Glascock, who played on three of the cuts (Anderson supplied the bass elsewhere) and died following open-heart surgery a few weeks after its release. Anderson's inspiration seemed to be running out here, his writing covering environmental concerns ("North Sea Oil") and very scattershot social topical criticism ("Dark Ages")…
"Stormwatch" (1979) is the twelfth studio album by the rock group Jethro Tull. It is considered the last in the trilogy of folk-rock albums by Jethro Tull (although folk music influenced virtually every Tull album). Among other subject-matter, the album touches heavily on the problems relating to the environment, oil and money.
Jethro Tull's best album of the 1990s, a surging, hard-rocking monster (at least, compared to anything immediately before or since) that doesn't lose sight of good tunes or the folk sources that have served this band well. The lineup this time out is Anderson on acoustic and electric guitars, flute, and electric and acoustic mandolins, Martin Barre on electric guitar, Doane Perry on drums, Dave Pegg on bass, and Andrew Giddings on keyboards. The real difference between this and most of the group's output since the end of the '70s lies in the songs, all of which are approached with serious energy and enthusiasm; the lyrics are completely forgettable, but for the first time since War Child, the band sounds like they're playing as though their lives depended on it.
Each era of rock music has had its own craftily marketed phenomenon – it was the "live album" in the '70s, "unplugged" recordings in the '90s, and since the late '80s through the present day, the "tribute album." But the early 21st century saw another addition – veteran bands revisiting classic albums and performing them in their entirety. Jethro Tull's most enduring release is largely agreed to be 1971's classic Aqualung, and in late 2004 Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, and their latest Tull mates dusted off the album once more in front of a small audience for XM Radio's Then Again Live series.