ROCK ISLAND

'Rock Island' is a strong contender... for the worst Jethro Tull album ever - this 1989 release follows-up 'Crest of a Knave' and echoes strongly the musical pursuits of its predecessor, with the sole difference of being an unfathomably boring and uninspired collection of generic FM rock tunes, bereft of any interesting ideas, loaded with silly and often embarrassing lyrics, and offering some of the least intriguing riffs and sequences of the band's entire discography. From one side, some fans might see this album as the complete negation of Tull's synth-driven new wave experiments from a couple of years prior to 'Rock Island's release, but the entire album is a dreadful excursion into dull songwriting and flat playing, quite surprising for a band having released so many classic albums. Even weaker entries like 'A' and 'Under Wraps' had exhibited some sort of personality and ingenuity - 'Rock Island' is simply devoid of that, there are a few remotely exciting episodes of classic J-Tull mimicry, with the majority of the album falling flat. Some of the songs found on side two can be deemed listenable and remotely acceptable ('The Whaler's Dues', 'Heavy Water', 'Strange Avenues'), but the entire first side is exquisitely bad, rendering 'Rock Island' one of the most disappointing albums authored by the otherwise great Ian Anderson, whose vocals here are once again rather troublesome as on 'Crest'.

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