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Jethro Tull

Prog Folk

4.05 | 1449 ratings

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MJAben

Leaps and Bounds ahead of their debut but nowhere near the mammoth that would be Aqualung.

At this point, Tull seemed to be in a transitional period in many ways, not only was the lineup fragile with the inclusion of new guitarist Martin Barre (and soon to change even more with the inclusion of John Evan and the departure of Clive Bunker and Glenn Cornick). What is the most striking change between the last album and this one is the gradual departure of blues.

This change doesn't seem to be an intentional one, but rather, a gradual shift of interest with the loss Mick Abrahams who was (to a large degree) much of the blues influence on the debut album. I don't think at this point you could justifiably call the band "Ian Anderson and co." but Ian's image for the band began to change and (lo and behold) so did the music. We see here a much larger progressive (though not fully implemented yet) and folky influence that we come to associate with later albums and, in many ways, the band.

As has been stated by many a reviewer this is a transitional album bridging the gap from what they were to what they would come to be. I don't want to go into individual songs, mainly because it's hard with such a varied and diverse album to rate each song fairly. I think it's right to say that there isn't a weak track on the album, not that I enjoy every track but that no track feels as though it's filler. My problem with the album however lies in this variety and in the fact that the album is so unfocused. It's a good album, at times a great album, but compositionally a mere shadow of albums such as Aqualung and TaaB which are soon to come.

This is an important album for Tull, an important album for those who want to understand and document and collect Tull but this is in no way a high point of their career (though it was what lead into it).

MJAben | 3/5 | 2014-4-2

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