It's been a good 19 years since Jethro Tull's last studio album, 19 years since that "The Christmas Album" which had, despite the trite theme, a lot of beautiful music and class. In recent years the good Ian Anderson has done everything, including closing the band chapter and walking out his old mate Martin Barre (the reasons are still unknown). Meanwhile a good solo album, "Rupi's Dance" and two works with the moniker "Ian Anderson's Jethro Tull" were released. The first, good on, which even quotes the famous "Thick as a Brick" constituting its sequel, and an imperfect "Homo Erraticus".
And after reiterating that Jethro Tull only exists in the repertoire, they come out with a record that officially falls into the discography of the mother band... yes, but without the historical members.
What matters is the music, right? So we have with a nice product, 47 minutes of good music, good songs, always with that mix of rock, folk, progressive, blues and flute fugues (strictly on one leg), all very honest and not at all derivative... is that sincerely what is missing, in my opinion, is the soul of Jethro Tull. In this sense I do not see anything to associate with such an important and cumbersome name, I find in it an excellent sequel to that "Rupi's Dance" I mentioned above, an excellent work by Ian Anderson, well above "Homo Erraticus", pleasant and fun, never boring or repetitive... but the fact remains that certain historical names should be put aside and not used for their own sake, even if ours was the founder and main composer. I know that in unsuspecting times the Tulls included songs by Ian Anderson in their setlists, but believe me, here the matter is taken to controversially exaggerated levels.
And so, summing up, let's enjoy this handful of good class music, yet another focus of a great artist, but let's leave Jethro Tull alone.
REVIEW BY ENRICO SPINELLI
Tracklist
1. Mrs Tibbets
2. Jacob’s Tales
3. Mine Is The Mountain
4. The Zealot Gene
5. Shoshana Sleeping
6. Sad City Sisters
7. Barren Beth, Wild Desert John
8. The Betrayal Of Joshua Kynde
9. Where Did Saturday Go?
10. Three Loves, Three
11. In Brief Visitation
12. The Fisherman Of Ephesus
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