Stormwatch (album)

Stormwatch
Studio album by
Jethro Tull
Released14 September 1979
RecordedAugust 1978, February–July 1979
Studio
Genre
Length44:58 (original release)
46:00 (2019 Remix)
LabelChrysalis
ProducerIan Anderson
Robin Black
Jethro Tull chronology
Bursting Out
(1978) 		Stormwatch
(1979) 		A
(1980)
Singles from
Stormwatch
  1. "Warm Sporran"
    Released: August 1979 (Germany) [1]
  2. "North Sea Oil"
    Released: October 1979 [2]
  3. "Home"
    Released: November 1979
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[5]

Stormwatch is the twelfth studio album by progressive rock band Jethro Tull, released in September 1979. The album is often considered the last in a trio of folk rock albums released by the band at the end of the 1970s, alongside Songs from the Wood (1977) and Heavy Horses (1978). The album's themes deal mostly with the environment, climate and seaside living, and were heavily inspired by the Isle of Skye in Scotland, where frontman Ian Anderson had recently purchased property.

Stormwatch was notably the last Tull album to feature the "classic" line-up of the 1970s, as drummer Barrie "Barriemore" Barlow and keyboardists John Evan and Dee Palmer all left or were fired from the band in the months after the album's tour concluded in April 1980, while bassist John Glascock had died from heart complications in November 1979 during the tour. Glascock's playing is largely absent on the album as a result of his medical issues, with Anderson playing bass on all but three tracks.

  1. ^ "Jethro Tull singles". Dutchcharts.com.
  2. ^ "Jethro Tull singles". Dutchcharts.com.
  3. ^ Eder, Bruce. Stormwatch (1979) at AllMusic
  4. ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
  5. ^ The Rolling Stone Album Guide. Random House. 1992. p. 368.