UNDER WRAPS

Continuing Ian Anderson's 1980's fixation with electronics/digital synthesizers, Jethro Tull released "Under Wraps" in 1984, a sequel to 1980s awful "A". This album is even worse. Despite some memorable melodies, and the one good track (the thankfully acoustic "Under Wraps #2"), this album has not held up very well at all. While it may have shocked the Tull faithful in 1984 with its slick euro-dance-pop production (yes, it is still Tull), it fares even worse now with critical hindsight, and sounds quite dated. Peter John-Vettesee's synths are simply awful. Furthermore, this also was the lyrical nadir of Ian Anderson, as he abandoned the pastoral english folk motifs of his previous albums (which worked so beautifully), and crafted a sort-of concept album around the cold-war. The distinctly European dance-flavor of the album is hard to stomach, but surprisingly, it fared well commerically (in Europe, it was a failure in America). Of course no Tull completionist would be without this album, but all others avoid - 2 stars.