Heavy Horses

Digitally remastered reissue of 1978 album includes 2 bonus tracks 'Living In These Hard Times' (taken from the album 20 Years Of Jethro Tull - recorded at Maison Rouge 1978) & 'Broadford Bazaar' (taken from the album Nightcap Unreleased Masters). 11 tracks & liner notes written by Ian Anderson. Chrysalis. 2003.

Like 1977's Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses is often unfairly posited as the thematic follow-up to its aforementioned studio predecessor. While Songs from the Wood evokes a magical atmosphere, Heavy Horses is far more earthly. Indeed, on the nine-minute-long title-track--a most poetic ode to the England's plough horses--Ian Anderson sings with the sorrow of a farmhand witnessing modern harvesting equipment coming over the horizon for the first time. One can even forgive him the rather randy line, "Let me find you a filly for your proud stallion seed, to keep the old line going." Sure, there's plenty of prattle about drinking afternoon tea with mice, but tracks like "Moths" and "Acres Wild" mark Heavy Horses as a must-own title in the Jethro Tull canon. --Kevin Maidment