A (LA MODE) - THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

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.