Okay, hunted down this topic so we can eventually finish This Was (sometime this decade )
1) Does the album break any new ground? Hard to say on this one. I personally think Songs from the Wood and Heavy Horses were incredibly groundbreaking from a folk rock perspective (for example, Tull succesfully merged disco and folk in "Acres Wild" not an easy feat). But This Was was obviously groundbreaking just in the fact that it was a blues album fronted by a flute. I'd have to say this is a tie.
2) The complexity/quality of the music: how adventurous is it? Are the melodies consistently good? This one definitely goes to Heavy Horses, very adventurous album, This Was had a lot of creativity in some places, but was generally a blues album. Melodies definitely go to Heavy Horses.
3) The quality of the lyrics in terms of imagery, rhyme, metaphor, content and meaning.
Heavy Horses is one of Ian's best in terms of lyrics, and I mean to whole album. Definitely HH.
4) How essential the album is to the Tull catalogue? Does it contain any Tull classics? Again I think this would have to go to Heavy Horses. Definitely one of Tull's essential albums.
5) How well-sung is the album? This Was had some great singing on it, but I think Ian had really developed his vocal style well by the time of HEavy Horses.
6) Are there any unusual or interesting musical touches, like the claghorn on This Was for example. I know I'm missing something, but I don't remember any instruments out of the norm on the Heavy Horses album, perhaps other than the short purr you hear at the very beginning. I must be missing something, but for now this one will have to go to the Claghorn.
7) The overall packaging and presentation of the album, including artwork, liner notes, etc. One of my favorite album covers ever is HH.
8) Production and sound quality of the album. This Was was definitely produced well when you consider the price it was done for, but how can it compare to HH.
9) Does the album have a sense of humor? Again would have to go to HH. Neither album has much humor, but I think you all are forgetting the coughing of the furball at the end of "Mouse Police"
This Was: 2, Heavy Horses: 12 (if I counted right)
Heavy Horses is the winner! (not surprising)
Hallelujah! Thanks, Kai, for updating ths particular round of Album Wars, and now, with your tally, Heavy Horses has pulled into a commanding lead. The score so far, is:
Heavy Horses - 4 votes This Was - 1 vote
But it's far from over, because it takes 5 votes for an album to win a round, so maybe This Was can still make it interesting!
Would anyone else like to participate in our Album War game? The rules, and our mandatory nine-point analytical scoring system, can be found here:
Jethro Tull FTW One of the Youngest of the Family member is offline
Joined: Feb 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 65 Location: Beggar's Farm
Re: Album Wars (This Was) « Reply #203 on Feb 17, 2012, 7:13pm »
1) Does the album break any new ground? This Was of course bring flute into rock and blues music, but Heavy Horses doesn't do anything incredibly different. TW=2 HH=0 2) The complexity/quality of the music: how adventurous is it? Are the melodies consistently good? TW's music is mostly quite simple and follows the traditional format, but Heavy Horses has so many instruments going on (plus the orchestra) which wins this round for it. TW=2 HH=2 3) The quality of the lyrics in terms of imagery, rhyme, metaphor, content and meaning. TW's lyrics are standard bluesy lyrics (It's Breaking Me Up, My Sunday Feeling), but HH has much deeper lyrics that makes you imagine all sorts of animals and the like. HH wins for me. TW=2 HH=4 4) How essential the album is to the Tull catalogue? Does it contain any Tull classics? TW contains classics like Song for Jeffrey, My Sunday Feeling and Serenade to a Cuckoo, where HH has other great songs like Heavy Horses and Journeyman. Hm.. I think This Was wins this one for me. TW=4 HH=4 5) How well-sung is the album? TW's vocals are quite good for me, but Ian's voice is far better on HH. TW=4 HH=6 6) Are there any unusual or interesting musical touches, like the claghorn on This Was for example. TW has the flute which was original at the time, but HH has the some crazy stuff aswell. I'm gonna' go for TW on this one. TW=5 HH=6 7) The overall packaging and presentation of the album, including artwork, liner notes, etc. TW has some enjoyable and humourous liner notes written by the band, but HH thanks the horses. XD TW on this one. TW=6 HH=6 8) Production and sound quality of the album. HH hands down. No explanation needed. TW=6 HH=7 9) Does the album have a sense of humor? TW has the humourous Song for Jeffrey while HH has the Mouse Police Never Sleeps. Yeah probably HH. TW=6 HH=8 Heavy Horses wins!
1) Does the album break any new ground? This Was of course bring flute into rock and blues music, but Heavy Horses doesn't do anything incredibly different. TW=2 HH=0 2) The complexity/quality of the music: how adventurous is it? Are the melodies consistently good? TW's music is mostly quite simple and follows the traditional format, but Heavy Horses has so many instruments going on (plus the orchestra) which wins this round for it. TW=2 HH=2 3) The quality of the lyrics in terms of imagery, rhyme, metaphor, content and meaning. TW's lyrics are standard bluesy lyrics (It's Breaking Me Up, My Sunday Feeling), but HH has much deeper lyrics that makes you imagine all sorts of animals and the like. HH wins for me. TW=2 HH=4 4) How essential the album is to the Tull catalogue? Does it contain any Tull classics? TW contains classics like Song for Jeffrey, My Sunday Feeling and Serenade to a Cuckoo, where HH has other great songs like Heavy Horses and Journeyman. Hm.. I think This Was wins this one for me. TW=4 HH=4 5) How well-sung is the album? TW's vocals are quite good for me, but Ian's voice is far better on HH. TW=4 HH=6 6) Are there any unusual or interesting musical touches, like the claghorn on This Was for example. TW has the flute which was original at the time, but HH has the some crazy stuff aswell. I'm gonna' go for TW on this one. TW=5 HH=6 7) The overall packaging and presentation of the album, including artwork, liner notes, etc. TW has some enjoyable and humourous liner notes written by the band, but HH thanks the horses. XD TW on this one. TW=6 HH=6 8) Production and sound quality of the album. HH hands down. No explanation needed. TW=6 HH=7 9) Does the album have a sense of humor? TW has the humourous Song for Jeffrey while HH has the Mouse Police Never Sleeps. Yeah probably HH. TW=6 HH=8 Heavy Horses wins!
Welcome aboard, young "Jethrotullftw" (may we know your first name? it's okay if you prefer not, though), great analysis there, and thanks for taking the time to go through our nine-point criteria. I didn't want this thread to be just a standard 'which do you like better', or 'which is your favorite kind of thing', because I wanted us to subject each album to the nine tests, so as to have some good analysis.
The goal was to establish, to the extent possible, objective standards of excellence, and to the extent possible, put aside subjective feelings. So, for instance, when we get to This Was v. A, I happen to like A better, but I think when I honestly subject both albums to our test, I'm going to have to score it in favor of This Was!
Anyway, you are correct, with your vote the final score in this round is: Heavy Horses - 5 votes, This Was - 1 vote , so poor This Was remains winless at this point.
One question, though. Didn't you originally score this a 7-7 tie? I thought I noticed that a day or so ago, because I was thinking that was the first tie we ever had. It's possible you were still in the process of editing your post, though, or maybe I imagined it since I've been very, very tired lately.
So, we are finally ready to move on to our next round, This Was v. Stormwatch. I will set that one up in a day or so!
Joined: Nov 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 1,269 Location: Pittsboro, NC
Re: Album Wars (This Was) « Reply #206 on Feb 21, 2012, 2:54am »
Definitely like the analysis style of doing this. It makes you think about the albums differently. You might even find the album that you think you liked the least scoring the highest
Jethro Tull FTW One of the Youngest of the Family member is offline
Joined: Feb 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 65 Location: Beggar's Farm
Re: Album Wars (This Was) « Reply #207 on Feb 21, 2012, 12:31pm »
Please call me Jack. I agree that I like this method of voting too. Otherwise I probably would have said This Was. Also, I did edit my post, because I listened to "And the mouse police never sleeps" and it made me chortle as it often does, so I changed the one about humour. Well, I gave some of the songs of Stormwatch another listen and here's my view on it:
1) Does the album break any new ground? TW has the flute and that epic claghorn. SW doesn't have too groundbreaking, so.. TW=2 SW=0 2) The complexity/quality of the music: how adventurous is it? Are the melodies consistently good? TW's music is mostly quite simple and follows the traditional format, but SW has some far more beautiful and impressive music (plus the great D. Palmer) which wins this round for SW. TW=2 SW=2 3) The quality of the lyrics in terms of imagery, rhyme, metaphor, content and meaning. TW's lyrics are standard bluesy lyrics (It's Breaking Me Up, My Sunday Feeling), but SW has much more meaningful and thought provoking lyrics (Dun Ringill has some pretty good lyrics) TW=2 SW=4 4) How essential the album is to the Tull catalogue? Does it contain any Tull classics? TW contains classics like Song for Jeffrey, My Sunday Feeling and Serenade to a Cuckoo, whereas SW has Dun Ringill, Something's on the Move, Flying Dutchman, Dark Ages. Hm.. I'm not sure if you mean does Ian and the gang play them often or is it just the songs you prefer. I'm gonna' go for the latter and say SW wins this round. TW=2 SW=6 5) How well-sung is the album? TW's vocals are quite good for me, but Ian's voice is far better on SW. TW=2 SW=8 6) Are there any unusual or interesting musical touches, like the claghorn on This Was for example. TW has the flute which was original at the time, but SW whilst not quite standard is fairly normal. TW=3 SW=8 7) The overall packaging and presentation of the album, including artwork, liner notes, etc. TW has some enjoyable and humourous liner notes written by the band, but SW has that cool little poem thingy. TW on this one. TW=4 SW=8 8) Production and sound quality of the album. Need I even explain. TW=4 SW=9 9) Does the album have a sense of humor? TW has a more humourous feel about it. Which brings the total score to: TW=5 SW=9 Give one point to Stormwatch.
![[Search This Thread]](http://images.proboards.com/search2.gif "[Search This Thread]")
![[Share Topic]](http://images.proboards.com/new/buttons/share.png "[Share Topic]")
![[Print]](http://images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif "[Print]")
Author
![[avatar]](http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/4690/699580944270a9904e56n.jpg "[avatar]")
![[yim]](http://images.proboards.com/yim.gif "[yim]")
![[msn]](http://images.proboards.com/msn.gif "[msn]")
)
Logged
![[image]](http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af278/tootull/HeavyHorsesremasterbooklet.jpg "[image]")
![[image]](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/819/tull129437x640.jpg/ "[image]")
![[image]](http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt78/jtull2008/6249680382282da3f89em.jpg "[image]")
![[avatar]](http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4113/65482123777217686964100.jpg "[avatar]")
![[image]](http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/188844_179808015397124_7477087_n.jpg "[image]")
![[avatar]](http://i49.tinypic.com/vkn86_th.jpg "[avatar]")
![[homepage]](http://images.proboards.com/buttons/www_sm.gif "[homepage]")
