THIS WAS

This is my very first review, and as I don't really like trashing stuff that's probably taken a lot of time and effort, I'll concentrate on my favourites, starting off with my favourite artist: Jethro Tull.

In 1972, I bought Thick as a Brick and because of the enormous impact it had on me, I just had to get Jethro Tull's entire catalogue, something I've kept up until this very day.

OK, concerning this album: Let me state first of all: I don't like The Blues. Never have, probably never will.

So as this is widely acknowledged as a Blues album, why do I like it so much? It's not all Blues, but the bulk of the songs are, earning this album its reputation.

I assume it's because the songs here seem to be so much MORE than just plain, simple Blues.

Apart from the rhythm, I associate a lot of improvisation (mainly guitar noodling) with this type of music, and that doesn't seem to be present very much here, at least not so much as to be a turn-off for me.

But mainly I can detect a lot of humour and fun in the lyrics and arrangements here, and that seems to be what holds this album together. It all seems very relaxed and I can actually picture Ian Anderson singing wide-eyed and with a grin on his face: These songs are plain FUN!

Indeed, for its age this album doesn't have the long-faced seriousness of a lot of its contemporaries. This album just oozes an atmosphere of 'Hey, why don't we try and put this little bit of idiocy in here and see what happens?'

For this reason, this is probably the only example of 'Light-Hearted Blues' that I've ever come across.

As Jethro Tull's output goes, this is the one that I rate the lowest (after all, they were just starting out), but it still deserves three stars, not for musicianship or the songs, but for the great feeling this band of noobies conveys by playing for sheer joy and excitement.