JETHRO TULL

Oh boy! Jethro Tull is back with a new album. I gave their last two releases middling-to-lukewarm coverage, so I didn't exactly have very high hopes for Curious Ruminant. Overall, though, I was pleasantly surprised. They leaned hard into folk music, and the album is mostly a success. It's not going to be a contender for my album of the year, but if you're looking for some decent, proggy folk rock, this is a good choice.

Curious Ruminant starts with "Puppet and the Puppet Master". Its opening passage is peppy and folky, with ample acoustic guitar and accordion. This is better than most of the band's recent output, and it strongly calls to mind Tull's output in the mid-to-late 1990s. Anderson's sing-talking isn't great, but with the state of his voice, this is really the best he can do.

The title track comes next, and it slows things down. There's a steady, crunching guitar line, and Anderson's flute playing is great. The band does a good job at keeping things tense, and this is more reminiscent of something off Broadsword and the Beast. I also like that the band's new guitarist has more character to his playing than the last one. He's still no Martin Barre, but it's an improvement. Despite everything positive I have to say about this song, it doesn't need to be six minutes long. Four-and-a-half would have been fine.

"Dunsinane Hill" returns to a folkier sound palette, with flute and accordion taking the lead in its opening. It is, however, also a step down from the prior two songs. Its glacial pace and unsubtle sing-talking makes me think of certain Roger Waters-penned songs. In its second half, the instrumental backing gets a bit more interesting, but this still isn't my favorite cut on the album.

The band returns to their '90s sound on "The Tipu House". It's a fun, high-energy cut, and I especially like the dark and swirling chorus. In contrast, "Savannah of Paddington Green" is a slow, sweet acoustic song. It's not bad, but it doesn't do much to stand out. Ian Anderson has written a lot of songs that sound like this one.

"Stygian Hand" sticks with the overall sound of the preceding cut, but it's got a lot more pep in its step. Mandolin, accordion, and flute give this cut a strangely pirate-y vibe, but it's not goofy. It's just got that "vaguely old-timey British nautical" feel to it, if that makes sense. However, it probably could have been trimmed down by about a minute.

The mood on "Over Jerusalem" is mellower and more whimsical. It's also a bit sappy, and the melody is somewhat awkward and unnatural. This isn't exactly Tull's strongest work.

"Drink from the Same Well" is the band's longest song since A Passion Play. (It clocks in two full seconds longer than "Baker St. Muse"!) The opening passage is a classical-influenced bit of piano, flute, and bass, and it's a pleasant instrumental moment. That introduction is followed by some bouncy folk flavors with the occasional bit of new age-y ambiance. It's pleasant enough, but some of this drags on for longer than it needs to; parts of this huge song can feel repetitious.

The instrumental first half of this song shifts abruptly to a verse. It's a bit wispy for my taste, but there are some good melodic ideas here. A bit more instrumental punch would have been nice, but Anderson's voice doesn't have the strength necessary for that. He needs the backing to be relatively light, or at least deliberately-paced. 

The second half of this song is unnecessarily dragged-out. Its length could have easily been trimmed to about 10-12 minutes without losing much. It kills the momentum of the album up to this point, and much of it just left me bored.

The final song on the album is also its shortest, "Interim Sleep", a brief spoken-word piece.

Curious Ruminant is both the folkiest and the best of Tull's post-reunion output. They sound a bit more like a band, rather than an Ian Anderson solo project. Anderson's voice is still a major hurdle for the band to overcome. He's learned to work within his limitations, but it's still a limitation. Aside from the overlong "Drink from the Same Well", the songs here are mostly focused and generally enjoyable.

Review originally published here: theeliteextremophile.com/2025/03/10/album-review-jethro-tull-curious-ruminant/

The latest release of Ian Anderson's Jethro Tull is the twenty-fourth studio album from the collective, titled 'Curious Ruminant', released in March of 2025 through Inside Out Music, compiled of nine new compositions recorded throughout the last fifteen years or so, and finally recorded as complete pieces making up the band's arguably the band's most introspective and philosophically-acute album, featuring the regular that currently goes under the Tull name, together with contributions from past members James Duncan (drums) and Andrew Giddings (keyboards, piano, accordion), having previously joined the band in the early 1990s. 'Curious Ruminant' zealously continues the band's contemporary style of forging a successful homage to their classic sound, this time with a much greater prevalence of folksy arrangements, aided by the heavy use of the flute and the accordion, which almost makes this album similar to the famed "prog-folk trilogy" of the late 70s.

From all three recent additions to the discography of Jethro Tull, this 2025 offering might as well be the most consistent and successful one, speaking of the overall impression left off by the album, the flow and the architecture of the work as well as the quality of the music and the engagement of the listener with the compositions. Beautifully complex and quirky, at times really folklore-ish and playful, this album has some truly solid numbers, which shall be a fine treat for dedicated fans, like the title track, 'Stygian Hand', 'Over Jerusalem', and the 17-minute-long epic 'Drink from the Same Well' (a piece necessarily evoking the grandiose 'Baker St. Muse' from 1975), containing some delightful instrumental sections in its first half. Yet going back to the age-old dispute of what is progressive nowadays, 'Curious Ruminant' probably hardly qualifies as such, since this album barely diverges from the musical musings already established on the two preceding releases. Nevertheless, this album will make Tull fans happy and while it is nothing groundbreaking, it is a good, well-curated and well-performed recording by a legendary classic band.

'RökFlöte' is the twenty-third studio album by legendary classic rock band Jethro Tull as well as the second installment in the "New Testament" of the resurrected version of the group led by Ian Anderson, who is accompanied either by musicians who have been part of Tull prior to the 2012 disbandment, or completely new members. This very album is informed on Norse mythology, drawing inspiration from pagan rites perhaps, and while not necessarily a concept record, the thematic thread is rather interesting. Originally intended as an instrumental album centered around flute pieces by Anderson, the frontman had found himself writing lyrics and full songs soon after, resulting in another complete work of new recordings, essentially an homage to the 70s and quite similar to (yet overall better than) 'The Zealot Gene' from 2022.

Structured as a classic album, with its twelve track-tracklist, 'RökFlöte' presents an interesting resurgence of those traditional J-Tull antics and sounds, much beloved by fans of the band's late 60s/early 70s period, with leading flutes, swiveling all over the place, around which the other members virtually play the music of Ian Anderson, supporting him in the crafting of the various pieces. Stylistically, this album certainly qualifies as folk-rock with progressive tendencies, and quite frankly, there are plenty of joyous, marvelous and exquisitely well-written instrumental passages, eventually supporting the idea that this might have been a gorgeous instrumental Tull release. Songs like 'Ginnungagap', 'Hammer on Hammer', 'Wolf Unchained', 'Trickster', 'The Navigators' and 'Ithavoll' all offer a daring amalgamation of the heavy and acoustic guitar riffs, the lovely mandolin, and Anderson's spiky, warm flutes, generally reminiscent of albums like 'Heavy Horses', 'Aqualung', and even 1969's 'Stand Up'. But while the music is excellent all throughout, the vocals hardly impress as it had been noticed on 'The Zealot Gene', somehow collapsing the overall experience of this album, which is good, coherent and enjoyable at large.

Still good but less varied, Jethro Tull's twentieth studio album 'J-Tull Dot Com' is by far a continuation of the musical world of 'Roots to Branches', once again introducing an array of exotic influences to the folksy rock palette of Ian Anderson's band of maestros. With the frontman himself reflecting upon contemporary matters and shifting trends in communication, this album is a nice and well-curated collection of fourteen tracks (in all honesty, a bit too much for what it's worth), and to an extent, one half of this album serves the more traditional side of Tull ('Spiral', 'Awol', 'Wicked Windows', 'Hunt by Numbers', 'El Niño'), while the other half delves even further into the exploration of Eastern influence intertwined with massive riffs and quirky flute playing ('Dot Com', 'Hot Mango Flush', 'Black Mamba', 'Far Alaska'). Without any of the material being overly exciting or explicitly groundbreaking, 'J-Tull Dot Com' is consistent and enjoyable, and even if this record is more accessible than 'Roots to Branches', it exhibits a less intriguing songwriting than its predecessor. A decent listen overall but far from the quality of the band's finest output. This record also happens to be recorded by the longest-serving unchanged lineup of Tull, which probably says something about it, too.

1995's 'Roots to Branches' brings yet another interesting twist to the Jethro Tull sound, with the ostensibly gorgeous influence of world music, swiveling across mighty passages of upfront flute sounds, heavy guitars and a prominent bass, all aspects rounding up for quite an excellent studio album evocative of the band's best material from the mid-to-late 70s, as this nineteenth studio album oversees a fabulous resurgence of creativity and passion following frontman Ian Anderson's travels to India, bringing along a fine Eastern-flavored flute mannerism contributing to the folksy swagger of his band, and in fact making much sense in the context of the British musician's second solo album 'Divinities', seeing the light of day a few months prior to the release of 'Roots to Branches', this influencing its stylistic direction profoundly. While one might catch glimpses of the band's previous experiments with hard rock and blues, this mid-90s release is much more pertinent to Tull's signature prog-folk style of play and is justifiably seen as the band's strongest work since 'Heavy Horses'.

Heaps of fascinating sonic experiments and unusual soundscapes influenced by Indian and Arab music, a trope otherwise referred to as worldbeat or world music. This is a surprising but welcome refreshment of the stagnated sound that dominates recent preceding albums. Martin Barre sounds sharp and inspired, Steve Bailey is prominent and technical on here, while the contributions of Andrew Giddings are remarkable as well, providing a mystically-orchestrated atmosphere of suspense and charm, all while the menacing flutes offer a delightful treat for any fan of classic Tull. Even Anderson's vocals seem to be well-suited to the music, which is often in the minor keys and thus quite moody and gloomy. We have an album replete with fine and often memorable melodies, excellent rhythms and introspective lyrics, with some of the better songs on the album including the powerful title track, the hard-hitting numbers 'Rare and Precious Chain' and 'Dangerous Veils', both of which capture a more invigorated Tull performance, the lavish and complex tracks 'This Free Will' and 'Wounded, Old and Treacherous' and the folk-rock-inspired 'Another Harry's Bar' - in a word, all of the material on 'Roots to Branches' is really good to excellent, which means that this is a strong and underrated album of the later Tull canon.

Jethro Tull's eighteenth studio album titled 'Catfish Rising' is a collection of blues-based rock songs that pretty much continue the style developed on previous albums, although in reality also harking back to the band's earliest musical wandering as captured on 'This Was' and 'Stand Up'. Definitely better-sounding and better-arranged than its predecessor 'Rock Island', this seems to be the third "hard rock Tull" album, this time with a greater use of acoustic guitars and flute, both of which are quite upfront, while the keyboards are right at the back, occasionally embellishing certain compositions. Even if all of these aspects seem to be a recipe for success, 'Catfish Rising' is yet another dull album from J-Tull, with tons of uninspired, mediocre writing, mostly embarrassing vocals and forgettable, boring melodies. Evenly spreading out their talents to hard rock, folk-rock and several bluesy pieces, the prevalent feel on 'Catfish Rising' is dread, with the hour-long album working as a patience test for the most dedicated of fans. What this album indicates is that Jethro Tull were outwardly directionless at that time, at least creatively - the album is overlong, and it could have been a much better offering had it been presented as a 35/40-minute-long LP. Turns out the CD format does not do much favor here, and despite the presence of a few remarkable moments (some songs are indeed fine), the majority of the music on here is devoid of grit and liveliness. Some of the better numbers would be 'Occasional Demons', 'Doctor to My Disease', 'White Innocence' and 'Sleeping with the Dog'.

'Rock Island' is a strong contender... for the worst Jethro Tull album ever - this 1989 release follows-up 'Crest of a Knave' and echoes strongly the musical pursuits of its predecessor, with the sole difference of being an unfathomably boring and uninspired collection of generic FM rock tunes, bereft of any interesting ideas, loaded with silly and often embarrassing lyrics, and offering some of the least intriguing riffs and sequences of the band's entire discography. From one side, some fans might see this album as the complete negation of Tull's synth-driven new wave experiments from a couple of years prior to 'Rock Island's release, but the entire album is a dreadful excursion into dull songwriting and flat playing, quite surprising for a band having released so many classic albums. Even weaker entries like 'A' and 'Under Wraps' had exhibited some sort of personality and ingenuity - 'Rock Island' is simply devoid of that, there are a few remotely exciting episodes of classic J-Tull mimicry, with the majority of the album falling flat. Some of the songs found on side two can be deemed listenable and remotely acceptable ('The Whaler's Dues', 'Heavy Water', 'Strange Avenues'), but the entire first side is exquisitely bad, rendering 'Rock Island' one of the most disappointing albums authored by the otherwise great Ian Anderson, whose vocals here are once again rather troublesome as on 'Crest'.

If one considers Jethro Tull's 80s output collectively, some fascinating gems and great music overall can be discovered, but when one singles out different albums, it understand just how fluctuating the band had been, and just how many challenges and changes Ian Anderson and Co. had gone through. Following the commercial and critical failure of 'Under Wraps', Tull had taken a short break and returned some three years later with 1987's 'Crest of a Knave', an album that showcased a welcome return to the more traditional Tull sound, prominently featuring heavy guitars, flickering flutes and a classic rhythm section, with significantly less keyboards and programming, but it also signaled a distressful change - Anderson's voice had changed following a throat surgery. The demanding vocals performed at the band's then-last tour had severely affected the hairy frontman's vocal chords, which by itself had necessitated a change in the vocal delivery style, one of the striking and ostensible aspects found on 'Crest of a Knave'.

But even with this in mind, the familiar folksy hard rock playing reminisces many of the band's glorious classic albums, and with Peter-John Vettese now absent, it is Martin Barre's major contributions to the sound of this album that eventually renders it a decent return to form, even if the guitar player had recalled how Anderson "knew what he wanted" with the writing and the direction on 'Crest'. Slightly more consistent and cohesive stylistically (compared to preceding releases), this album features a couple of songs that can be attributed to that delightful classic Tull writing, that delirious and triumphant prog-folk style made compelling by the Blackpool-founded band - 'Farm on the Freeway' might as well be the best example of that, while the 10-minute suite 'Budapest' could in some contexts be seen as an attempted resurgence of the band's progressive rock links. Opener 'Steel Monkey' is fiery and hard-hitting and 'Mountain Men' is another one of the better songs on here, but the rest of the album has the inevitable aftertaste of a Dire Straits influence and turns out to be uninspired and forgettable. With all of this cleared out, one can imagine this album as a much better offering had it featured a different set of songs (eventually) and while compensated by some strong compositions, 'Crest of a Knave' is far from the grace and novelty of works like 'Songs from the Wood' or 'Aqualung'.

Unfortunately, 'Under Wraps' has become an easy target for rampant criticism but this bold 1984 album by Jethro Tull offers a pretty daring and well-exercised amalgamation of electronic sounds, new wave pomp and prog pedigree, a surprising but interesting combination that very few bands could have even imagined doing; not to mention the occasional flute vignettes, the excellent vocal performance of Anderson and the gritty, groovy patches spread across the album. The careful listener might as well be asked to consult some of the remastered editions or even the CD-version of the album, containing a tracklist of fifteen songs, eventually representing the entirety of this work. With the predominant arrangements of Peter Vettese, Jethro Tull pull off an interesting and well-done performance, with many staggering synth-pop numbers, replete with memorable hooks and ballsy passages of electronic menace, of course with the undue presence of several really disappointing entries.

While 'A' and 'Broadsword' had achieved a better balance between acoustic and electronic sounds, 'Under Wraps' generally lacks this asset; However, this album bolsters some fine songwriting, interesting hooks and a fascinating underlying theme of espionage fiction. Where the album is undeniably lackluster is in the predictability of many songs, focusing more on delivering hooks rather than a substantial, adventurous sound, as well as the unfavourable choice of having programmed drums all throughout - perhaps befitting the stylistic ventures of 'Under Wraps, not having a real drummer is a shame for a band bolstering ex-alumni like Clive Bunker and Barriemore Barlow. Still, I find the sound of at least half of 'Under Wraps' quite a successful attempt at capturing that AOR-tinted new wave influence over prog rock, with Tull delivering several really well-done quirky synth-pop anthems, like 'Lap of Luxury', 'European Legacy' and 'Nobody's Car', while other underrated but really great numbers include 'Later, That Same Evening', 'Tundra' and 'Automotive Engineering'. This is a good album that suffers from the often-annoying production values of 80s pop and rock music as well as the unhinged use of electronic instruments, which takes away some of that charm and animation, pertinent to classic J-Tull.

Overcoming the occasional clumsiness of 'A', Jethro Tull moved on with their zealous exploration of electronic sounds interwoven into the folk-pomp that the band is generally known for, and their 1982 release 'The Broadsword and the Beast' might just be the underrated gem of their 80s material. Delving further into the collective study of electronic and art rock sounds as well as taking advantage of new possibilities offered by synth-based instruments, and that is to say, much in the same vein as other legacy acts of the seventies (prog-pop pioneers Yes and Genesis, and Talking Heads-inspired King Crimson quartet), Tull had crafted a rather delightful and well-articulated collection of digestible and enjoyable songs, on a an album that impresses with its evocative upfrontness and straightforward arrangements, an excursion of accessible sounds and lyrical mythology - just peek at the great cover art and the medieval-looking imp with its menacing broadsword, the epitome of Jethro Tull perhaps!

What we have on 'Broadsword' is a fantastic combination of the acoustic rapture of earlier albums and the electronic experiments of Peter-John Vettese, quite an important figure in the forging of the band's renewed sound and musical identity. Balancing out elements from rock, prog and AOR and the respective production values of the 80s, the final structure of the album allows for its focused flow and pleasant unfolding of various sounds. At times groovy, at times moody and mystical, this is an album that probably tries to re-capture the eclecticism of some of the band's past achievements, and while 'Broadsword' is no masterwork, it is a really solid album for what it's worth, and a rather good listen. As usual we have a powerful opener in the face of 'Beastie', followed by the gracious 'Clasp', where the synth-based soundscapes generously elevate the more traditional Tull sound. Three more songs, all of which really fine, complete side one titled 'Beastie', while the second side going under the name of 'Broadsword' is where all the exciting material is kept - the title track, 'Pussy Willow', and 'Watching Me, Watching You' stands as excellent examples of how the band had moved on, embracing the techniques of the 80s yet remaining true to the J-Tull identity and crafty, ingenious writing, making this 1982 release one of the better albums of theirs overall.