AQUALUNG

Now don't get me wrong. This is a terrific album, its a 5/5 by regular standards, but when you think about only masterpieces of prog should get 5 stars, and this isn't terribly progressive. It starts out with the title track, the main riff of which is sure to catch your ear. After rocking for a while the song goes mellow for a few, then it goes into an awesome guitar solo, then it ends heavily again. Track 2, Cross eyed mary, is another rocking song, witha great flute intro, and memorable lyrics and riffs. Track 3, Cheap day return, is short acoustic ballad, which is very nice and melodic. Mother goose is another ballad with great lyrics and melody, which starts out slow and acoustic, but it adds some rocking electric guitar later. This also features great flute. Wond'ring aloud is another short acoustic ballad, featuring great guitar and vocals. The first side closes with Up to me, which has a kind of bluesy jazzy main riff which may be hard to get into for some, but the melody and the rest is classic folky Tull stuff.

Side two opens with the considerably darker My God, featuring great acoustic and electric guitar riffs and great vocals and lyrics. This is kind of a scary song, the darkest on the album perhaps. Hymn 43 is another good one, featuring great everything. Slipstream is short and maybe the least memorable song on the album, but the song that comes after it may be the best on there. Locomotive Breath is one of those hard rocking, slightly dark songs which is mainly acoustic, and it has a great memorable riff and lyrics. Wind Up, the closing track, is another ballad, featuring some memorable piano an dgreat vocals and lyrics.

So the only reason I didn't give this a 5 is because it is more hard/folk rock than prog, with a whole bunch of ballads. It still features some of the greatest songs by Jethro Tull and some of the greatest of classic rock. Highlights include: Aqualung, Cross eyed mary, mother goose, my God, and Locomotive Breath. Although all the songs are pretty good.