Top 7 Jethro Tull Albums

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 Saperlipopette! wrote:

 Psychedelic Paul wrote:

 Saperlipopette! wrote:

Pleased to see
 Psychedelic Paul wrote:

4. Benefit  (53 points)
doing so well. To me it's peak Tull as a genuine band - and just ten perfect songs. Ian Anderson's songwriting in this era is up there among the all time greatest - regardless of genres. And what an amazing band they were! Tull were pretty great throughout the 1970's, but they lost their groove after Aqualung.  

The Top 7 turned out pretty much as I expected, although I'm surprised Heavy Horses is currently ranked higher than Minstrel in the Gallery, which behooves me to give Heavy Horses another listen. 
You know there's been so many years since last I heard it, I went back and gave Minstrel another shot this morning (the Steven Wilson version as I was curious about it). Looking at the cover art, the tracklist, it all seems so right. But when I press play I reminded why I've never fully gotten into it. The sheer sound of the instruments - the guitar in particular. It's unfittingly heavier, more sterile and not this warmly fuzzy, hard rocking grooves anymore. It sounds like Barre thinks he's in a Heavy Metal band, and not in a proggy Folk Rock group. And whenever the guitar isn't issue and we get these beautiful acoustic numbers, they are occasionally ruined by a string section that doesn't really add anything of substance. All that aside and hidden unerneath there's a pretty great album to be found. If those mentioned technicalities weren't an issue, I'm sure I would have rated Minstrel in the Gallery above both Heavy Horses and Songs From the Wood. Placing it behind A Passion Play - like i did - is certainly all wrong.   

I love them as a proggy folk band but less sure about them when they moved into the full on progressive scene with TAAB. I have to admire the fact they went all out for it though (albeit they caveated it as a 'joke' to avoid a potential backlash maybe). It feels a bit watered down to me compared to what came before. I think it was the blues element in their music that gave it a much more heavier and grittier sound. I probably need to spend more time with their music maybe. I did listen to Warchild recently but I get the overriding impression that Anderson's vocals too often 'strangle' the music to a point that I lose interest sadly.

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