ROOTS TO BRANCHES

My original review was rudely interupted by a power surge that turned my pc off while I was reading through it just prior to clicking submit - that kind of thing makes one want to leave a tooth impression in the keyboard. I'm not going to attempt to rewrite the whole thing as I'm still acid about the affair however herein are the salient points. This album represents a change in the Tull formula where the band takes on a "world music" flavor with strains of middle eastern, eastern and at times african sounds and structures. I like this new sound and the album is a definate step up from the previous few releases. There is little of the Tull of the early 70's here however that can be almost forgiven with this incarnation which although nothing like as good is very interesting and appealing to the ears. I don't pick up much of the "Dire Straits" emulation and sound of a few of the earlier releases throughout this album barring for on the last track "Another Harry's Bar". The really stand out tracks for me here are "Roots to Branches", "Wounded, Old and Treacherous", "At last, forever" and "Stuck in the August Rain" although there is nothing that I percieve as subpar on this release. The rating from me is an easy 4 stars.