CATFISH RISING

1991 saw the release of yet another unimpressive hard rock album, Catfish Rising, though at least Jethro Tull switched a few things up. Gone are Anderson's synthesizers. Instead, a handful of studio musicians were brought aboard to provide piano and organ. Catfish Rising also features the most overt blues influences since Stand Up, released 22 years prior.

Ian Anderson seems to have finally accepted that his vocal range was more limited by this point, and this album has his best vocal performance since before his throat surgery. The band members also sound like they're having fun and not just passionlessly laying down bland hard rock (see: Rock Island). They're just having fun playing bland, bluesy hard rock. It's not much of a difference, but it does have something of a positive effect.

A few songs on Catfish Rising are alright, and upon listening to this album for the first time since high school, I found it to be less intolerable than I recalled. I still wouldn't recommend it, but it's not some flaming catastrophe. "Still Loving You Tonight" is an okay blues ballad featuring some nice Spanish flavors in the acoustic guitarwork. "Sparrow on the Schoolyard Wall" is surprisingly fun, and "Gold-Tipped Boots, Black Jacket and Tie" is a return to short-form, jolly folk numbers. As much as the blues permeate this record, it's the mandolin and folk influences that provide the best moments.

Despite those few highlights, Catfish Rising still brims with dragging, unimpressive hard rock. "This Is Not Love", the album's opening track, shows that Tull still liked doing Mark Knopfler knock-offs (Knock-pfloffs? Knopfl-offs?). "Rocks on the Road" is a tepid, slow-moving number that sounds like an alternate take of "Farm on the Freeway". "White Innocence" lacks a single original thought and drags on for nearly eight minutes. It's maddeningly repetitious, and the piano tones are terrible.

"Like a Tall, Thin Girl", however, may be the single-worst song Jethro Tull ever recorded. I'm not a lyrics guy. I don't focus on them, and I'm usually pretty good at zoning them out and enjoying the music by itself. But these lyrics are really, really, unignorably terrible. Ian Anderson's vocal delivery is also reminiscent of his work on Crest of a Knave. It's strained and nasal and grating to no end. I'm just glad this song is only three-and-a-half minutes long.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2019/07/25/deep-dive-jethro-tull/