Jethro Tull - "Heavy Horses" (New Shoes Edition) to be released in February 2018!

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I've owned this album since the day it came out in 1978 (and I caught the tour too). Gave the 5.1 a listen last night, including all the bonus tracks. Stellar sound quality, excellent 5.1 mix, but I agree with Ian that as an album it's not top-class Tull. Example: 'No Lullaby' is half-great, but it's really basically the same intro/verse/chorus stated then repeated, without interesting variation. Why? (Shades of Rush's 'Camera Eye')

The bonus tracks are strong, though, and I am delighted with the remix of 'Beltane'.

(Also, Ian's voice timbre changed quite a bit for this one, and I've never liked its gruff sound -- it's as if almost the whole album was done in the style of 'Jack In The Green' (from Songs from the Wood) . Then later on of course his voice *really* went south......)

The Bern concert sounds good too, much more presence for the drums and bass compared to Bursting Out.

The booklet is exhaustive, and exhausting (did I *really* need essays by Maddy Pryor and the violinist from Curved Air and the guy who worked for Maison Rouge for this one Tull album?) , as usual for these releases. Better more than less, I guess.

(I'm not voting because I think the 1-10 scale is absurd ,as I've said before. )

[EDIT: I see there's a dedicated poll thread now...moderator, feel free to move this post there, or not)
 
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I just got this today. Might be the wildest Tull 5.1 remix yet! I admit I've never heard the album in stereo, but I can't imagine how they jam all the instrumentation into two channels. Almost every song has layers of multi-tracked vocals, flutes, guitars, etc.

I couldn't resist the urge to take apart some of the songs in Audacity. Ian Anderson's doubled vocals in the rears of the title track and opener "Mouse Police" are seriously cool to listen to on their own. Martin Barre's high and low guitar parts at the end of "Weathercock" are nicely separated in right front and left rear. There's one track that has harmonizing flutes split between the rear channels. I need to listen further but there are tons of other awesome examples of the way elements are spread out.

Am I the only one who thinks there's been a serious jump in channel separation with these last two Tull mixes? Unlike some of the other titles in this series (which are definitely discrete just not quite as extreme), these last two seem to have mixed like old quads where instruments are fully isolated in a single speaker or pair. Kill the fronts and you lose lead guitar and drums. Kill the rears and you lose flute and backing/doubled vocals. They're mixed really wide and are an absolute blast to listen to. Go SW!
 
Am I the only one who thinks there's been a serious jump in channel separation with these last two Tull mixes? Unlike some of the other titles in this series (which are definitely discrete just not quite as extreme), these last two seem to have mixed like old quads where instruments are fully isolated in a single speaker or pair. Kill the fronts and you lose lead guitar and drums. Kill the rears and you lose flute and backing/doubled vocals. They're mixed really wide and are an absolute blast to listen to. Go SW!
You are not alone in this thinking. Actually I have found the last two (Woods and Horses) a tad hot in the rear channels, which has not been the case for the other releases. I tend to like 5.1-mixes better than Quad-mixes so I lower the rear channels 2-3 db on these two releases for best result to my ears. To me, this gives a better balance between the channels and I do not feel that I am missing anything either.
 
HH (stereo) isn't a particularly dense mix, as JT albums go. As far as recent JT 5.1 goes, I'm less enchanted with the SftW remix the more I listen to it. It's too 'diffuse' somehow, I expect more snap in the front channels. I've still only listened to the HH 5.1 remix fully through once, so I withhold final judgement on that. It's never been one of my favorite JT albums in any case; after the high point of Minstrel , later albums seem weaker (and the loss of vocal agility is unmistakable).
 
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