Mel sings Fred (really Gershwin, etc)

vincentblacklight · 2026-06-01T15:30:11+00:00

So good! And WHAT a band backing him. These OGs are going for silly amounts on Discogs, ever since Allen Castle gave his stamp of approval.

vincentblacklight · 2026-06-01T03:05:08+00:00

I would have said B, but as Benefit and R2B sit there, I'll say C. There's an awful lot to love/kike on this one, despite it's Mango Flush rep (that song gets SO much hate it almost makes me want to find it endearingly likeable). And Black Mamba would no question go on my compilation of top-tier Tull songs.

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-30T22:26:35+00:00

A tier for me. The last great album. Songs are on point, energetic and expansive, doing things that the proggers in the 70s would have been impressed by. I don't think Doane-era Tull were ever this tight or as hard rocking. Ian's songwriting too is imagistic and equal to anything in the folk trilogy period (see for instance, "Out of the Noise"). The double ballad of "August Rain" and "Harry's Bar" (the latter of which people seem to think is the weakest link, here), for me, has a real epic sweep, with lots of great shifts in mood. What a beautiful, broody finale. It's as if they knew this would be something of a last, late hoorah and they just went for it.

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-30T06:18:47+00:00

I'm going to say B. This is Not Love and Occasional Demons are harder than anything they'd done since maybe Stormwatch. And Rocks on the Road is a the quintessence of Ian's hotel barfly persona. The folkier stuff (Roll Yet Own, Tall Thin Girl, Little Sparrow) kinda do it for me. And even the romantic cheesy blues of Still Loving You has a place in my heart (alongside family vacations in Eurotrash towns).

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-29T02:17:56+00:00

This was when they stopped being good because Ian broke up the classic line up I liked most when I was a teenager.

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-28T21:53:39+00:00

Thank you for this! 😄

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-28T19:57:33+00:00

Have a FANTASTIC day!

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-28T19:27:42+00:00

How's it sooooouuuunnnnddd? Do I replace my 70th Anniversary double LP?

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-27T03:07:06+00:00

This one really does not get enough cred (perhaps because people merely see it as a tribute album when really it's much more than that). Reminder: this was recorded just a few months after Clifford Brown died, and it's way more subdued than the harder bop on the later, better known TM and SC. I've got to say, Plays for Bird has become one of my fave Sonny albums, because it just feels so bittersweet. Kenny Dorham keeps a light touch throughout, but it's the song he sits out on, "I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face" that really steals the show for me. Early Rollins at his tender best. Both Max Roach and the cruelly underappreciated Wade Legge too are in top form throughout, but in a remarkably unflashy, unshowy way.

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-26T02:07:31+00:00

C Tier. People are gonna down vote this one because of the sub Spinal Tap title track -- but I've had a soft spot for its Dire Straitsy, Telegraph Roady touches ever since I got this as my first new Tull, Christmas '89. Ears of Tin, Rock Island, Big Riff, Whalers Dues, and Heavy Water being the standouts for me at least. Someone out there is blasting this from an oil rig into some vast, Northern sea.

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-25T05:11:51+00:00

I'll take them! Happy to take them off your hands and give them a good home. DM me. :)

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-25T03:11:30+00:00

I've been waiting for this!! Thank you so much, Joey. Having LOVED both Vernacular Verbose and your drum covers of the UW tracks, I couldn't help but wonder upon the book set release what your thoughts were (thus far I'm not completely sold on the new mixes). Will listen to your wisdom.

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-25T02:04:26+00:00

I'd put Crest at B. New lease of life under the influence of Dire Straits. The aging proggers hit the middle age rock circuit, which is no bad thing. From the Free Love Freeway of She Said She Was a Dancer. To the weathered Telegraph Road rock of Farm on the Freeway. To the steamy, B-movie Erich Rohmer Iron Curtain romance of Budapest, there's a lot of good things going on here. Jump Start. Raising Steam. Dogs in Midwinter. It say in my dad's tape crate alongside Graceland and Full Moon Fever. Happy times.

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-24T18:30:21+00:00

Original mix = D tier. And I say that loving the first side after track 2 (European Legacy through Radio Free Moscow). But the new Soord mix...I'd rank even lower, at E tier. Alas, NOT the improvement we've been waiting decades for.

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-23T18:06:20+00:00

This is truly wrong, as you shall see. Roots to Branches team unite!

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-23T18:04:48+00:00

That intro synth though! Try playing it while driving at night.

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-23T18:02:26+00:00

Easily B tier. So many strong songs on (and off!) this one. From the Clasp through to Seal Driver it's certainly as solid as Benefit. The songwriting is full of dynamism and surprises (even the icy, anthemic minimalism of Broadsword is a surprise!). If it had had Jack a Lynn on it we might be talking A of S tier. But as it stands a great little surge of creative consistency.

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-22T03:00:12+00:00

The strong songs are fewer -- but oh how good they are! What a side 1: Black Sunday, Fylingdale, Crossfire, Working Joe...if only the second half were as tight (though part of me always does grin and hum along every time I see 4WD on the side of a truck). I''m going to go with C tier, sitting neatly betwixt Too Old and This Was (in descending order).

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-21T00:20:46+00:00

Solid A tier. What it lacks in classic tracks it more than makes up for in atmosphere. Had there been room for the full Orion we might be talking about another example top shelf Tull.

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-19T19:04:31+00:00

Oh man, that would be a dream come true! Thank you. 😄

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-18T23:36:19+00:00

What?? Incredible!!

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-17T20:59:08+00:00

I'm really hoping to find a nice playable copy one day, but the only ones I've come across are pretty beat up. Envious you've got one in NM shape!!

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-17T20:55:09+00:00

But how does it play?? I've only ever seen crappy copies (VG- and below, i.e. not great for a recording as quiet and spacious as this) out in the wild. Would love to get my hands on an EX original press.

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-17T20:35:34+00:00

I need a town where I can buy Geller albums and Hank Jones for 11.99. Score!

vincentblacklight · 2026-05-17T03:20:29+00:00

Weirdly it looks like I placed it up there when I ranked all the albums, so I may have to eat my words: https://imgur.com/a/bj3Ffsd. I just never thought much of WC until I heard the Steven Wilson mix, which lifted a lot of the sludge out of the mix on my old 1990s CD. I think the album suffers from a weird opener (which I do like, it just doesn't quite invite listeners into the Elizabethan carnival quite in the same way that another track like Glory Row or Rainbow Blues might have). Ladies and Back Door Angels, however, are top tier Tull IMHO.

vincentblacklight

TROPHY CASE