Heavy Horses
| Heavy Horses | ||||
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| Studio album by Jethro Tull | ||||
| Released | 10 April 1978 (US) 21 April 1978 (UK) |
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| Recorded | January 1978 at Maison Rouge Studio, Fulham, London | |||
| Genre | Folk rock, progressive rock, hard rock | |||
| Length | 43:05 | |||
| Label | Chrysalis | |||
| Producer | Ian Anderson | |||
| Jethro Tull chronology | ||||
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Singles from Heavy Horses |
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |
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| Rolling Stone | (favourable) |
| Melody Maker | (unfavourable) |
| Sputnik Music |
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Heavy Horses is the eleventh studio album by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull, released on 10 April 1978. It is considered the second album in a trilogy of folk-rock albums by Jethro Tull, although folk music's influence is evident on a great number of Jethro Tull releases. The album abandons much of the folk lyrical content typical of the previous studio album, Songs from the Wood (1977), in exchange for a more perspective on the changing world - as a clear mention to the title track, the album is dedicated to the "indigenous working ponies and horses of Great Britain". Likewise, the band sound is harder and tighter. The third album in the folk-rock trilogy is Stormwatch (1979).
Produced by Ian Anderson and recorded and engineered by Robin Black in London, Heavy Horses mark the last Jethro Tull studio album with full participation of bass player John Glascock. Anderson stated that the recording of the album came in a moment where others artists would walk towards the new trends of music, and the band decision was not "to appear as if we were trying to slip into the post-punk coattails that were worn by The Stranglers or The Police [...] They were bands that were seen as being part of the punk world, but they weren’t". With the same line-up from the last album, Heavy Horses established, then, as the second record of the folk rock trilogy.
Heavy Horses bares more earthly and prosaic themes compared to its predecessor. Songs about the conformist view of daily life ("Journey Man"), or dedicated to Anderson’s dog ("Rover") and cat ("...And the Mouse Police Never Sleeps"), or even another one for his new son, James ("No Lullaby"). However, an element already present in Songs from The Wood, Heavy Horses served as a discourse on transience and disappearing worlds. The title track - one of two complex suites on the record - is compared by Anderson to an "equestrian Aqualung ". Other tracks, such as "Acres Wild" and "Weathercock", works as a plea for better days ahead. But, alongside the changes on themes, the music went much harder, too. The mini-epic of the title track flowing from a piano ballad to a fiddle-fest (of Curved Air's Darryl Way) to full gallop, is a great example of the album's style as a whole. "No Lullaby" rushes from a crushing Martin Barre riff as "Weathercock" starts full folk, to add progressive rock flavours. Barre declared that " Songs From The Wood and Heavy Horses are two of the best albums from my time in Jethro Tull".
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