THE JETHRO TULL CHRISTMAS ALBUM

Well it’s that time again, time to drag out the tree and throw up some decorations, and put on some yuletide cheer. For the past couple of years that tradition has included a few rounds of old Willie and the Tull Christmas album.

This is a fairly innocuous collection as Tull albums go. It won’t make Grandma blush like Aqualung (or even Rock Island) would, and the musicianship is absolutely superb. There’s some original material here like the opening track, which story goes was written for Anderson’s daughter, as well as the Anderson-sculpted versions of a number of more traditional tunes. You could certainly do worse than this for a Christmas collection.

Top tracks include the instrumental “Holly Herald” which is actually a sort of medley of several classic tunes; “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” which sounds more like a combination of a shopping mall Muzak track and a lounge act (although who every heard of a lounge act with a flute?); the undeniably Tull-like “Last Man at the Party”; and the toe-tapping and smooth “Greensleeved”. "Fire at Midnight" is a mellow, heart-warming tale of coming home after travels and enjoying the company of loved ones, and "A Winter Snowscape" makes a great backdrop while decorating the tree or sipping nog.

If you don’t have this you should probably get it, unless you don’t celebrate Christmas, in which case you might enjoy the music anyway, but may not get much into the spirit of it. A four-star affair and a great companion to the Manheim Steamroller Christmas CD you picked up at the highway truck stop, and the Burle Ives cassette your great-aunt sent you last year.

peace (on Earth and goodwill to men)