AQUALUNG

This is the holy Prog grail! Well, one of quite a number, but still. I'm afraid I'll have to do something that I don't really want to, but as I find it difficult to describe this album as a whole, I'll have to go into the feelings the songs convey to me. The reason, of course, is that it's not all a smooth ride, in fact is quite bumpy in parts.

Aqualung / Cross-Eyed Mary / Cheap Day Return / Mother Goose: As good as it gets. Really, really excellent.

Just to highlight this song: Wond'ring Aloud: What a beautiful melody!

Up To Me: Not What happened here? Sure I can hear the melody, but why is it so very ... non-catchy? Something here stops me liking it; it's so very uneven (for want of a better word). The tune just seems to stumble along. Still nice, in its own way though. . My God / Hymn 43 / Slipstream: All the very best material. Top marks, I couldn't wish for more in strength, melody, arrangement and feeling.

Locomotive Breath: Sorry, but why doesn't anybody hear, just how horrible this is. This is just a dreadfully plodding along song that repeats itself all the time, going absolutely nowhere. After hearing the first twenty seconds (well, after the piano intro), you've heard it all. It reminds me of the dreadful hype surrounding 'Deep Purple's' 'Smoke on the Water'. Plod, plod, plod. Sorry, but I just can't stand it. Sounds like a bobby on the beat.

Wind Up: Another 100% beauty.

Apart from the two (or, say, on-and-a-half) slip-ups, I've got to hand it to Jethro Tull: The mixture of electric and acoustic songs on this album is something that was extremely unusual but for some reason very effective. It almost seems as if two albums of opposite spectrums were fitted together on one record and actually fit in an extremely satisfying way.

A departure from the great riffing of Benefit, and to my ears a bit of a step backwards in overall quality, but a step forward in the direction Jethro Tull were heading on the way to true publically acknowledged greatness.

I still can't get myself to give five stars, Locomotive Breath alone prevents this. Four stars it is then.

Share this JETHRO TULL review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to npjnpj
• Report this review (#168593)
• Buy JETHRO TULL music online with PA partners
• Show all JETHRO TULL MP3/Stream
• Go to JETHRO TULL page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Aqualung page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for JETHRO TULL related discussions