ROCK ISLAND

While a bit better than it's followup, CATFISH RISING, this album seems to be a rehash of ideas found on the prior, CREST OF A KNAVE, which was okay, but not great. "Rock Island" and "The Whaler's Dues" (by far the best offering here) and "Another Christmas Song", are pretty good, but the rest fails to stick in my memory, and some is just lame- "Rattlesnake Trail" (Meant to be the single, I guess). It almost feels like during this era Tull and Ian Anderson were just coasting along, putting out average albums just because they had to. Of course, at this point, Jethro Tull had been whittled done to Ian Anderson and Martin Barre. Basically, this is kind of an Ian Anderson solo album with Martin helping out. I don't have the remastered version with bonus tracks so this is based on the regular release. 2 stars. Uninspired and dull, yet a small cut above CATFISH RISING.