Jethro Tull – Heavy Horses: New Shoes Edition (2018)

40th Anniversary “New Shoes Edition” includes a Steven Wilson stereo remix of the album and nine “associated studio recordings” — 7 on the first disc are previously unreleased — and a 1978 concert from Berne, Switzerland spread across discs 2 and 3, remixed by King Crimson’s Jakko M. Jakszyk.
Jethro Tull’s 11th studio album, Heavy Horses, is one of their prettier records, a veritable celebration of English folk music chock-full of gorgeous melodies, briskly played acoustic guitars and mandolins, and Ian Anderson’s lilting flute backed by the group in top form.
This record is a fairly close cousin to 1977’s Songs from the Wood — and was ultimately the hinge-piece and first of an ecologically themed trilogy which concluded with 1979’s Stormwatch — except that its songs are decidedly more passionate, delivered with a rough, robust energy that much of Tull’s work since Thick as a Brick had been missing. In its lustiness it arguably surpasses even Aqualung. “No Lullaby” is the signature…

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…heavy riff song, a concert version of which opened Bursting Out: Jethro Tull Live recorded that same year. Anderson sings it — and everything else here — with tremendous intensity, as though these might be the last lines he ever gets to voice. The band plays hard behind him throughout, with lead guitarist Martin Barre (most notably on “Weathercock”) and bassist John Glascock showing up very well throughout. Anderson’s production and Robin Black’s engineering catch every nuance without sacrificing the delicacy of the leader’s acoustic guitar and mandolin playing. “Acres Wild,” “Rover,” “One Brown Mouse,” “Weathercock,” and “Moths,” the latter featuring some of David Palmer’s most tasteful orchestral arrangements, are among the loveliest songs in the group’s entire repertory. Curved Air’s Darryl Way delivers the violin solos on the title track and on “Acre’s Wild.” The former is a bittersweet tribute to England’s vanishing shire horses, and doesn’t really take off until Way’s instrument enters in the break, noting a marked tempo change.

Disc 1: Steven Wilson Stereo Remix of original album (Tracks 1-9) plus associated recordings (* previously unreleased)

1. …And the Mouse Police Never Sleeps
2. Acres Wild
3. No Lullaby
4. Moths
5. Journeyman
6. Rover
7. One Brown Mouse
8. Heavy Horses
9. Weathercock
10. Living In These Hard Times (Version Two) *
11. Everything In Our Lives *
12. Jack A Lynn (Early Version) *
13. Quatrain (Studio Version) *
14. Horse-Hoeing Husbandry*
15. Beltane
16. Botanic Man *
17. Living In These Hard Times (Version One)
18. Botanic Man Theme *

Tracks 1-9 originally released as Chrysalis CHR 1175 (U.K./U.S.), 1978. Tracks 15 and 17 from 20 Years of Jethro Tull – The Definitive Collection (Chrysalis T BOXCD 1 (U.K.)/V3K 41653 (U.S.), 1988

Discs 2-3: In Concert at Festhall, Bern, Switzerland – 5/28/1978 – Stereo Remix by Jacko Jakszyk

1. Opening Music (Quartet)
2. Introduction by Claude Nobs
3. No Lullaby
4. Sweet Dream
5. Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day
6. Jack in the Green
7. One Brown Mouse
8. Heavy Horses
9. A New Day Yesterday
10. Flute Solo Improvisation/God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/Bouree
11. Living in the Past/A New Day Yesterday (Reprise)
12. Songs from the Wood

1. Thick As a Brick
2. Hunting Girl
3. Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll
4. Conundrum
5. Minstrel in the Gallery
6. Cross Eyed Mary
7. Quatrain
8. Aqualung
9. Locomotive Breath
10. Dambusters March/Aqualung (Reprise)