A (LA MODE) - THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

The new improved sound of this remix really makes me notice how good songs such as working John and crossfire are. Didn't take much notice before. Crossfire has a cool extended ending as well. I love coruisk as well. Should have been on the album instead of Batteries I think. Then we have the classics Fylingdale, Further on, Uniform, Black Sunday, Pine Marten. This is 5 star for me. Definitely on par with the Songs from wood set. The improved sound, new enjoyment of songs and extra tracks give this an extra star over original. These sets have been amazing. Horses, Storm and Songs book sets also 5 star. A great run for Tull. Similar with the run of Aqualung, Thick and Passion sets. All 5 star

This boxed-set presentation of Jethro Tull's contentious A album not only includes Steven Wilson giving the album (and associated studio tracks) a new mix to tease out the hidden virtues often overlooked in previous appreciations of it, and not only includes the "Slipstream" film (mixing and matching live footage with music videos, but it also includes the full audio, at last available in non-bootleg form, of the LA Sports Arena show from November 1980.

Though this show was the source of the live material in Slipstream, the film ended up only capturing a fraction of the set, which may well be the true prize of this collection. The A-era lineup of Jethro Tull was fairly shortl-lived, but this show offers a refreshing new take on much of the material from the album, plus classics from the Tull repertoire adapted to the style of the other material (and the needs of the somewhat tweaked lineup). This works better than expected, and the energetic performance adds life to the A material which the rather mannered production of the studio album can obscure, (Black Sunday here is an absolute belter).

It's only prevented from being a five-star set by the fact that, ultimately, A wasn't quite a five star album... but if the studio set had captured something of what was on display at the LA Sports Arena show, perhaps it would have been.

Having acquired a little disposable income, I preceded to do just that and deposited it on this "A" 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition 6 disc set remixed by Steven Wilson. The main reason being that I liked, if not loved, the album and was annoyed by the noisy, somewhat harsh and congested sound mix of past editions, being either on vinyl or CD. Low and behold, the remixed and remastered 1980 studio album, in both stereo and 5.1 surround, does sound cleaner, more defined and more musical to me.

By this point, one either loves or loathes the studio album, so an album review is not necessary. However, the live material is all new and as such, it's worthy of a shout out. Recorded on one of the touring band's final dates in 1980, it was both well performed and well recorded. Mr. Wilson did an excellent job of cleaning up the tapes and mixing them for both stereo CD and DVD 5.1 surround. Both are stellar as are the band's performances, with all members at the top of their game. And how bad could perfectionist musicians like Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, Dave Pegg, Mark Craney and Eddie Jobson sound? My only beef is an altered version of "Locomotive Breath", arranged by Jobson, in a blusey shuffle that doesn't work, but luckily doesn't last long. 4 stars for the content, 5 stars for the sound and packaging.

In the comprehensive and captivating liner notes we can read that initially the A album was meant as a solo project by Ian Anderson (that explains the A), but in the end the record company decided that releasing A as a new Jethro Tull album was commercially more interesting. And that "A was an attempt to bring Jethro Tull from the farmland into the Eighties".

Well, to me the studio-album A sounds fresh and inspired, with strong contributions by special guest Eddie Jobson. But it is not really a historical musical document, some great tracks, and some mediocre songs. However the A tour was glorious, a stunning blend of Jethro Tull classics, and the visual extra bonus of Eddie Jobson performing the A tracks, with mindblowing soli on his violins, and spectacular use of the mighty Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer, in those days high- tec. I was blown away by Jethro Tull on stage during the A tour, but pretty disappointed about the Slipstream video footage, I consider the band clips as disturbing. So I hoped that this lavish boxset featured unreleased live video footage, as you can see on YouTube, unfortunately this is not the case.

Nonethless this boxset is very interesting, especially due to the excellent two different remixes (by Steve Wilson, CD-1 and DVD-1) and bonustracks of the A album, the entire LA 1980 concert (2 different mixes, on CD 2 and 3, and DVD 2, audio only), and last but not least the remixed Slipstream video (DVD-3).

For me this 3-CD/3-DVD boxset is a very pleasant trip down Memory Lane, back to a concert that featured two great and unique musicians: Eddie Jobson and Ian Anderson (they met each other when UK supported Jethro Tull in 1979), enjoy their sparkling chemistry, embellished with lots of sensational soli on guitar, flute and keyboards.