Short Stories/Tall Tales

Artist: Horslips
Label: Diablo Records UK
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Original recording remastered
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 740155167127
EAN: 0740155167127
ASIN: B000058A1C

Release Date: 2001-03-13

Short Stories/Tall Tales

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Tracks:

Guests of the Nation
Law on the Run
Unapproved Road
Ricochet Man
Back in My Arms
Summer's Most Wanted Girl
Amazing Offer
Rescue Me
Life You Save
Soap Opera

Similar Items:

Unfortunate Cup of Tea
The Man Who Built America
Drive the Cold Winter Away
Tracks from the Vaults

Album Description

Reissue of the folk/rock/progressive act's final studio album, originally released in 1979. Remastered at Abbey Road from the original tapes with repackaging from the band. Standard jewel case. 2001 release.

Album Details

This was Horslips' ninth & final studio album, originally released in 1979. Remastered at Abbey Road from the original tapes & with re-packaging by the group themselves.

Customer Reviews:

pleasant listening to fine crafted songs .......2006-10-01

After a first listen you may wonder if this is the same band that delivered the folk laden "Drive the Cold Winter Away", "The Tain" and "Book of Invasions - a Celtic Symphony", but give it a few tries more and you are taken away with a strong collection of well crafted songs in a modern setting of electric guitar and keyboards plus rythmesection. Only the splendid "Rescue Me" is on acoustic instruments and a fine popballad it is. Overall not bad, certainly not, every song has his own distinguished melody and stands out among the others. Odd that the keyboardpattern in "Summer's Most Wanted Girl" and far more so in "Amazing Offer" do remind of that of the Cars on the first albums. It is clearly an indication of the new direction of this band after having made completely different albums, with a strong Irish folk background. Now they tend far more towards pop/rock. "Guests of the Nation" is a fine example. Well this (alas last studio)album has not dissapointed me, although I hoped for a little bit of that classic Horslips' folks/rock sound, it stands on its own and shares a place with earlier albums "Aliens" and "The Man Who Built America". Sit back and enjoy, thet owe it.

Against their best albums, this LP suffers.......2006-08-10

I rate this 2 out of 5 only by comparison with the band's finest albums, Tain, Book of Invasions, and Happy to Meet--5 stars; Tracks from the Vaults: 4; Dance Hall Sweethearts: 3; and the closest equivalent not in sound but in effect to SS/TT: the Unfortunate Cup of Tea. I am a Horslips fan, but to be honest, this album is a letdown.

Fans of Aliens and Man Who Built America would like this most. Those eager for more of a progressive folk style should stick to the earlier triumphs, for they will find almost no trace of the band's best songs and stirring concepts on SS/TT. For a band that long had suffered under Tull comparisons, this does, true, mirror the stage reached by the early 80s with Tull. But, fans of both bands generally would have to admit that this period was not the peak for either the Irish band or their English peers.

Followers of the fab five tend to mark this low; the reviews on Amazon rate it overall higher than other critics have. Yes, it does have a sparkly keyboard and sprightly guitar combo. The guitars are the most recognizable feature, the one instrument that despite genre changes by the band, still has a distinctively identifiable Horslips sound. You'd never guess if you had not been told, however, that the final studio track by Horslips here, "Soap Opera," with its synth hiss fadeout, is by the same band that began their first album with a cough and tin whistle and wheezy concertina.

So, this is the end of the line. The concept of matching lyrics to short stories, evident still from the title, seems to have been (as was the Carolan comparison for "Dance Hall") jettisoned. Two F. O'Connor stories do survive as titles and their storylines can be dimly discerned in Flannery O'C's "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" in the lyrics here, and a bit less allusively in Frank O'C's considerably grimmer than the song here's attitude, "Guests of the Nation." Guests is the standout tune on the LP; "Rescue Me," with its tender folk return to the band's roots, shines as well and stands here as a poignant reminder of the spirit that infused the band at its peak.

The other songs? Well, none reach the nadir of the opening track on Dance Hall, "This Is What You Want," although even that celtic disco fusion from '75 at least tried to be different enough to stick in your memory a bit--for better or worse. The same problems the band had mid-70s when they veered into mainstream hard rock repeat at the end of the decade. On SS/TT, the other eight songs shuffle along into MOR rock circa 1980. This final phase of the band has been labelled "new wave," but this is in the same league as when Dire Straits and Huey Lewis were marketed with that same musical category, after bar bands had cut their hair and jumped on the post-pub rock bandwagon.

None of the eight songs sink totally, and this is to the credit of the consistent vocals that had always distinguished the band's accomplished singers. The guitars do chug along with echoes of an Irish trad influence however faint, and the drums can be as thunderous as they were on previous LPs. But, the energy has dissipated. It's a brief ten songs, barely over 35 minutes, as if the effort to come up with five-a-side did the band in. Added up, the total lacks dynamics. If the band had kept at it, had taken their time to write stronger songs, and had sustained their earlier innovation, perhaps the promise of "Rescue Me" and the force of "Guests" could have sparked other and stronger songs for the rest of the LP. But, sadly, the creative flame burns low and here eight times out of ten only flickers barely above the nondescript embers.

Like it for what it is........2006-08-08

I'm amazed at the bad reviews this album gets! Yes, I understand; they changed thier sound. They tried to appeal to a wider audience. But this album is very good!
Being a huge Jethro Tull fan, I was happy to be introduced to the "old" Horslips. I loved anything that was a mixture of rock and some form of traditional or classical music. A while later, but still in the "vinyl" days, I found Short Stories Tall Tales in the cutout bin. Having not yet heard The Man Who Built America, I thought, "Are these the same guys?" But I loved it immediately.
Thier later sound needs to be taken on it's own merit, not by looking back on the way they used to be. When I first heard this album, I thought, "The FM rock radio stations ought to be clued in to this; this would take off!" But we all know they are too stupid to try something off the beaten path.
If you really love the "old" Horslips, and don't like pop, then you won't like SSTT. But if you like early 80's rock, you should enjoy this. It's good simple rock.

What Is This Album?.......2004-10-27

... UNDERBLINKING RATED THAT'S WHAT!!!! I recently heard something like the company making the Horlips CD's were going bankrupt or something, so I thought I'd better get the albums I didn't own now. I'd already looked at this, read the reviews, and essentially got the message it was alright but just bland. THAT IS NONSENSE!!! I've listened to this several times and although it isn't the Irish Folk rock of old, it's damned good. It's not even pop rock... if you enjoyed The Man Who Built... then you'll enjoy this too. Think Jethro Tull, Crest of a Knave, and you've got the sound.... this is a very good album, and well worth the money, but it on, relax, tap your foot (if drunk dance stupidly) and enjoy...
... Hope this has been useful... Toodle Pipski.. THIS IS HOW YOU SPELL IT!!!! YAY! Sorry, private thing there

The End of a Great Run through the 70's...........2004-07-04

If this album had been my introduction to the band, I doubt I would have become the Horslips FANATIC that I am. Horslips went through three distinct phases during the 70's: their initial folk/prog phase where they resembled Steeleye Span; their middle prog rock/Celtic phase in which they resembled Jethro Tull; and their final phase in which they went for a more modern, streamlined sound.

Unfortunately, their final phase was their least interesting period as there were so many other bands doing the "skinny tie" pop/punk thing so much better (like THE JAM!)

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Quartet ~ Roscoe Mitchell

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Forró Morango Com Mel ~ Banda Morango Com Mel

Favela Chic Postonove 2

Forro Carioca ~ Banda Forro Carioca

Miwakugeki ~ Novela