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Jethro Tull - Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! CD (album) cover

TOO OLD TO ROCK 'N' ROLL: TOO YOUNG TO DIE!

Jethro Tull

 

Prog Folk

3.11 | 887 ratings

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SouthSideoftheSky
Special Collaborator
Symphonic Team
3 stars Too old for Thick As A Brick, too young for Stormwatch

With the exception of the excellent Minstrel In The Gallery, I sometimes feel inclined to say that the post-Thick As A Brick, pre-Heavy Horses period (roughly 1973 to 1977) is a relatively weak period in Jethro Tull's long and impressive career. A better way to put it is perhaps to say that the band's generally very strong 70's output had two major peaks, the first peak was with Aqualung and Thick As A Brick in the early 70's, and the second peak was with Heavy Horses and Stormwatch in the late 70's (with Minstrel In The Gallery constituting a minor peak between the two major peaks). In between the peaks, there are some generally good, but relatively weaker albums like A Passion Play, War Child, and the present one. 1977's Songs From The Wood showed a lot of promise and indicated that Jethro Tull were once again on the rise, but on this 1976 album they still produced some good, but less memorable material. Also, while Songs From The Wood, Heavy Horses, and Stormwatch would further and develop the band's sound, the present album does not take things anywhere beyond what they had already done in the past. As such, Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll, Too Young To Die! is a somewhat backward-looking album presented by a temporarily stagnant Jethro Tull. They even reverted to the good old harmonica-infected Blues Rock on a couple of songs here - a style they had (wisely!) abandoned in the late 60's.

I still prefer the present album over the uneven War Child and also over the early Blues Rock albums from the 60's, but compared to greats such as Thick As A Brick, Stormwatch, and the previous Minstrel In The Gallery, this is rather lame. The only stand out track is the title track, but even that one pales in comparison with the best songs from other 70's albums. The rest of the tracks are pleasant enough but, as I said, not too memorable. I have given this album several chances and it did grow on me somewhat over time, but it is not more than merely good which seems to be the general consensus regarding this album.

SouthSideoftheSky | 3/5 |

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