WAR CHILD

So what is this? A classic?

This is a Jethro Tull album in the boderline of being disastrous. By no means it's a classic. The album has some fans around at cause of A Passion Play that wasn't very well received. So people who didn't like that surely would get into this being sort-of a return to form, though not quite a good return as some would say. An excellent return to form is Minstrel in the Gallery, but that's another story. To the album!

The album starts with the title track. It's a peculiar track. It's a rock song. It has some not-so common features, like the sax, a soft piano and some orchestral arrangements. The song is not that strong overall, and ends up like if it needed some back-up, while that back-up will never come along the album. Not a great opener I have to say.

Then we go with Queen & Country. Similar to the title track, Ian's voice is cut with the drums and with the rhythm of the song. You'll hear something peculiar on this one too, the accordion. The chorus is catchy, but still needs the ol' hammond or the fantastic ol' bass Tull used to have, even if Jeffrey is still here.

We go on with Ladies. A nice acoustic tune. We got Ian's flute, at last. Again the sax is giving a kind of pecculiar style. The song at the end gets a classic rock style with a piano going on. It's a nice tune with no real interest in it.

Now after uninteresting tunes we got at last a tune that gives you some shiver. This is Back-Door Angels. The song has nice keys going on, like a mini-part from A Passion Play. In general it's a rockin' song with some good change of moods, like they would do in the future Minstrel in the Gallery. With very good playing by Martin Barre. The song it's not that convincing though, but has interesting guitar sections as well as keyboard ones. The song finishes soft with Ian's acoustic guitar.

After an interesting track we got the highly claimed rocker, Sealion. As Back Door Angels, this has stunning electric guitar sections. The orchestral arrangements give a very bad role here, I must admit. In the end, a fine rocker with a mix of acoustic guitar over the electric one. Some accordion here and there. Another sort of unique piece, but, again, not well achieved.

Then we got Skating Away on the Thin Ice. This is a very well achieved acoustic tune with good orchestral arrangements, giving it a very pleasant touch.

Now we get to the humorous Bungle in the Jungle. While being simple or pop, it's a hell of a fun track. Opening with some animals roars, and then soon we got the Tull's trademark instrument, the flute. As interesting as Harold the Barrel by Genesis, both short tunes, and catchy, but still having each bands elements.

Now we go ahead with another folky tune, Only Solitaire. It's nonethless a very short track with nothing interesting to show. Just Ian's voice and acoustic guitar going on. Similar what they'll do on Too old to Rock, Too young to Die.

Now we get to one of the most indegistibles Tull songs, The Third Hoorah. As you may see, already the title is stupid. While it is a stupid song, bringing some irrelevant bad joy to it. It does contain acoustic, acordion, orchestra, electric guitar and flute, but really the mix in here is awful, Ian's voice get's painful cause the way he wants to bring joy on the song.

The album finishes with Two Fingers. I must say this song is Excellent, well at least compared how the album was going. This song is powerful. With some good bass melodies. A good electric guitar fullfilling the scene. A very good riff. Still we got the lacking orchestra, but the song isn't completely ruined by it. This song saves the day of the albums destiny.

Well, so? The album is quite lacking of GREAT material and gets to a dull, boring one. Having useless orchestra and acordion. Ian's voice seems somewhat depressing without joy, but not the joy in Third Hooray, please not that one, but the one from TAAB. The album is by no means prog. And being a rock album, it's a bad one.

You want a return to form? Get Minstrel in the fucking Gallery, that'll blow your ears out.

So is this album worthy on your collection? NO! Can you like it? Well yeah, but I don't, even if I were drunk.

The only songs that give me interest, at least a bit, are: Back-Door Angels and the final track, Two Fingers. Then we got songs that I like too, but aren't really interesting tracks, just nice tunes that anyone can like them: Bungle in the Jungle and Skating Away in the Thin Ice.

A 2.5. Rounded to 2. Just for collectors!

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