SONGS FROM THE WOOD

Whenever I picture the Jethro Tull sound, I picture lots of folk-inspired themes, lots of flute and some hard rock-type sound. SONGS FROM THE WOOD seems to have that sound that seems very prototypical in my head. There's a certain warmth that the album possesses that causes me to gravitate towards it.

Instrumentally, the album is very spot on; nothing is too cheap or obvious, but at the same time, nobody really overdoes anything. We get a good dosage of trademark Martin Barre riffs (the hero of ''Pibroch''), the flutes and percussion are stellar, but it's the thick bass guitar sound that pleases me the most. Collectively, many of the tunes exonerate an ornate or festive like sound. So, if it's happy, cheery music that turns you off, run far away from this album.

The only problem might be some of the pop-like structures as tunes like ''The Whistler'' have this verse-chrous-verse structure. I tend to ignore that since I like the sound around it. The most enjoyable tunes more me are the title cut (with harmony vocals, a rarity for Tull), ''Jack-in- the-Green'' (perversely twee), ''Ring Out, Solstice Bells'' (ANOTHER Christmas song?!?), ''Hunting Girl'', ''Velvet Green'' and ''Fire at Midnight'' (possibly my overall favourite cut). Yes, I'm self-aware that those select songs comprises 2/3 of the album. And I get very giddy about the bonus tracks, so this is a case of bias.

Take this review with caution; I like SONGS FROM THE WOOD very much, but rookie Jethro Tull fans ought to try AQUALUNG or THICK AS A BRICK first, then branch out into their other 70's stuff including this one. But, this IS one of their finer efforts that ought to be considered for a prog collection.