UNDER WRAPS

I recently copied my entire CD collection including the good, the bad, and the ugly so I could sync my entire CD collection to my Ipod. This would fall into the ugly category. I haven't listened to this album for years, but I forced myself to listen to it again today just to see if something had changed over time, I had been enjoying listening to some early JT lately, so this was particularly painful to listen because it probably sounded even worse by comparison. I first bought this CD after seeing JT perform live during the Under Wraps tour at the Rosemont Horizon in the Chicago suburbs. Let me first say that their live performance was amazing, even though it included some tracks from the Under Wraps album, as I remember Ian Anderson begining the concert from the rear upper deck corner of the stadium playing the flute with the spotlight upon him and then working his way through the aisle to the stage. I also remember the rest of the band rising up from underneath the stage as they were initially Under Wraps. Their were several other unique special effects to that concert and they played all their classics and sounded abolutely fantastic. Definitely one the best live concerts I have ever witnessed. So with that background, I decided to purchase this album. What a let down it was when I first heard the studio version of Under Wraps. I was expecting to hear JT and thought I was hearing a poor version of DEVO. It was as if JT had devolved into some 80's digitized pop band with horrendously cheesy lyrics and the beautiful sound of one of my favorite bands had vanished into oblivion. After listening to this again today, I felt it sounded even worse then I first remembered. I honestly thought I could find one track to rave about here, but no, there is absolutely nothing to redeem this album from the waste bin. JT had fallen into the same trap that so many other once great 60s and 70s bands had when they forgot their roots and what made them successful in the first place in favor of trying to sound more modern, more digitized, and ended up sounding cold, empty, and void of whatever soul they once possessed. A very sad development for a once great band. I would give this a negative 5 stars if that choice was available here.