Track Listing

1. North Sea Oil
2. Orion
3. Home
4. Dark Ages
5. Warm Sporran
6. Something's On The Move
7. Old Ghosts
8. Dun Ringill
9. Flying Dutchman
10. Elegy
11. A Stitch In Time
12. Crossword
13. Kelpie
14. King Henry's Madrigal

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15670 in Music
• Released on: 2004-02-09
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

A Lost Classic Returns
This is the great ignored Tull LP. Released amidst the chilly winds of the punk fall-out in the late 1970's, 'Stormwatch' is one of the Tull's more coherent and pertinent statements, both lyrically and musically. The vague concept about renewable resources, global climate change and political intervention is as relevant today as it was back then (the LP was released just as the UK began benefitting from - and squandering - the income raised from the oil fileds in the North Sea). Songs such as 'Dark Ages', 'North Sea Oil' and 'Something On The Move' are all highly melodic, strong pieces, mercifully lacking the Tull lack of focus that sometimes made their songs a bit unfocused. Here the band were right on top of their craft and Ian Anderson hadn't sung this convincingly for many a year.

It's not all strident either, 'Dun Ringil' is as beautiful as anything on 'Songs From the Wood' and the closing instrumental piece 'Elegy' is simply delightful. Indeed, there are so many great songs here, long time fans will particularly enjoy 'Orion' and 'The Flying Dutchman'.

It's time to replace that old vinyl, or to get to know a lost Tull classic.

worth it
Stormwatch is an excellent if somewhat uneven album, the track in Dark Ages in particular being among the greatest Tull songs; brilliant lyrics with a musical play on the opening notes of Beethoven's (Anderson's favourite composer) 5th to indicate how far Britain was in the Winter of Discontent from the Enlightenment. (Of course, it is even further in these days' 'consumer haze'.) My problem with this album, both on vinyl and cd, was that it also sounded as though it had been recorded in the dark ages. All the tracks were muddy and lacking focus, warmth and bite. The remastered version rectifies this problem. The album now sounds massively better and well worth the £6.99 or so to hear properly.

Great suprise
I didn't know this album until I received it 2 days ago. I must say it was a very pleasant suprise. In my opinion it is one of the better Tull-albums. Altough it has some dark lyrics on it, this album is the third in the trilogy of Songs from the wood and Heavy Horses with a nice folk-rock feel to it. Highly recommended.