ROCK ISLAND

The previous Crest Of A Knave was a rather good Jethro Tull album, certainly not among their better efforts of course, but at least much better than Under Wraps. Rock Island tries to be Crest Of A Knave part 2, there is that same Dire Straits sound and feel to some songs, but the material is a lot weaker here I'm afraid. There are a couple of good songs, but there is nothing as good as Budapest from Crest Of A Knave. This album opens very weakly with a handful of rather lame rockers. Not until the title track does things start to get moderately interesting, this is also the first track that can be said to be at all progressive.

Another Christmas Song is a follow up to Christmas Song from the band's early days and it is exactly what the title indicates. Apart from the title track, The Whaler's Dues and the closing Strange Avenues are the only good songs to be found here. If they had taken these rare few good songs and transferred them to Crest Of A Knave, replacing the least good couple of tracks on that album, they could have made a rather good album. But as it stands, Rock Island is definitely one of the weaker Jethro Tull albums.

Only fans and collectors would probably have made it this deep into the band's vast discography, so it is only for them that this disc is really recommended. But the few highlights points into the promising direction of the excellent Roots To Branches a few years down the line from here.

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