ROOTS TO BRANCHES

Like most of the most popular progressive acts of the 70s who decided to stick around long enough to experience the great 80s identity crisis, JETHRO TULL was less successful in reinventing themselves and created what many regard as a clumsy series of albums that roughly began with the new wave infused "Under Wraps" and well into the 90s with a heavier rock infused style. The band had clearly lost its edge and main man / lead singer / flautist Ian Anderson was clearly chasing the latest trend rather than unleashing the brilliant innovation that had launched the band into the limelight in their earlier years.

After the long run of experiments that didn't exactly set the world on fire, JETHRO TULL returned in 1995 with its 19th studio album ROOTS TO BRANCHES and surprised its fans with an album that went back to its origins, namely progressive folk rock brought to life with Anderson's prominent flute performances and poetic lyrical prose that recounted personal life experiences. In this case ROOTS TO BRANCHES was primarily inspired by Anderson's recent trip to India thus ROOTS TO BRANCHES became what Anderson has referred to as the "Indian Songs From The Wood."

The album featured longtime guitarist Martin Barre but debuted keyboardist Andrew Giddings who contributed rich texturized atmospheres making ROOTS TO BRANCHES a very moody return to form. In addition to the Indian musical influences, Anderson took an interest in Arabic musical flavors and also added touches of jazz. In the case of tracks like "Wounded, Old and Treacherous" Anderson took on a semi-spoken, semi-sung singing style that sounded a bit like folk rapping. The album's overall emphasis on the lighter side of folk rock very much in the vein of late 70s albums such as "Heavy Horses" earned the album the best album that Anderson and friends had cranked out since those days.

Musically ROOTS TO BRANCHES is fairly strong with beautiful folk melodies decorated with knotty guitar work, Eastern tinged exotica and Anderson's signature flute sound. The keyboards are primarily atmospheric but piano rolls punctuate the percussion rich motifs and the consistency of 70s TULL classics is back in full-swing. Unfortunately ROOTS TO BRANCHES comes off as weak in the vocal department as Anderson's fiery spirit had been somewhat extinguished by this point and his ability to hit the higher octave range seems to have been a thing of the past. All in all the album is pleasant but for a diehard TULL fan played entirely too safe.

As a diehard TULL fan myself, i find every studio album sitting on my shelf and although these later albums are not bad in any way, they lack the brilliant dynamism that permeated the band's canon from the debut "This Was" up until the experimental and oft misunderstood 1980 release "A." For those longing for a return to form, ROOTS TO BRANCHES certainly provided that long anticipated return to the past but as far as the shining brilliance that graced the 70s output, ROOTS TO BRANCHES seems like a half-hearted attempt at recapturing those anachronistic visions. Make no doubt about it, certain tracks like "At Last Forever" clearly evoke the great TULL of the past but for the most part Anderson sounds as if he is struggling to hit the proper notes therefore this is a decent album indeed that fails to rise to the quality of its heyday.