Thought's on 'Homo Erraticus' - Ian Anderson?

Here are mine. Let me know what you think! I'll be interviewing him this Friday too. 

http://www.examiner.com/article/ian-...homo-erraticus

Edited by ConfusedGenius - May 18 2014 at 13:22

lazland wrote: I think it is an absolutely fantastic plug for the Examiner.com website, so very well done, old chap!

Decent. pretty much in the same vain as TAAB2. Nothing that will ever be ranked terribly high in my mind, but a pleasant once a year (or so) album.

The Dark Elf wrote: lazland wrote: I think it is an absolutely fantastic plug for the Examiner.com website, so very well done, old chap! Yes, I thought the same, which is why I shan't click it. God knows what viruses await on the Examiner site.  As far as the album Homo Erraticus, it is definitely better than Thick as a Brick 2, but one wishes Ian Anderson would come to his senses and ask Martin Barre to return on lead guitar. This Florian Opahle fellow is technically competent, but in a Yngwie Malmsteen sense. Barre played ballsier...ummm....more Tullish, if you know what I mean.

    So, is this guitarist a bit of a showboater? The "cutting heads" type? Martin Barre knew when not to play. He also knew the perfect time to play a fast lick or passage of notes. The interplay between Martin Barre and Ian Anderson on the Minstrel In The Gallery album was unbelievable and that can't be replaced. But if he truly has a Malmsteen style, I can't forsee that complimenting the Tull sound identity.

dr wu23 wrote: Guitarists aside.......Ian Anderson hasn't written anything in years that appeals to me like his older material.

  I feel the same and I can't force myself to like it. I hardly liked anything after Stormwatch...which!..I was willing to give Stormwatch a chance because the band still had a little bit of that Songs From The Wood style ..somewhere in there..while the follow up.."A" took off in a different direction. Years later...I heard Crest of A Knave and thought I was listening to Dire Straits instead of Jethro Tull...but I still gave the 20 years of Tull box set a chance and surprisingly I heard "Farm on the Freeway" and a new arrangement of "Living In the Past" recorded live at the "Tower Theatre" in Philadelphia , P.A. and that was very great. Even though Ian Anderson had lost his ability to sing fluently, the live tracks were very great. But I never went any further than that..as one day I heard "Rock Island" and ended all hopes of the band ever returning to the music and the style I loved.

I'm just now giving it a progstreaming listen :)

corrections of dogma/relativity.:-) The'new'guitarist isn't that new.been adjunct to J.T.a while!Pete Townshend:'the music Must<change!evolve.Andersons been responsible for most J.Tulls repetoire,anyway.btw.the band'sNOT over,according to Barrea&-Anderson.Imagine you are hearing this for the very first time...with zero preconceptions.Superb cd.:-)

The album is excellent, and much better than TAAB2.  I was actually shocked by the lukewarm reviews at PA.  I gave it a 4 stars on PA.  If you enjoy Jethro Tull or Ian Anderson it is worth picking up, and you should be able to find it for $10 right now while it is a new release.  The people that listen to samples will not get the whole feel of this album.  I was skeptical until I bought it.


Edited by javajeff - May 27 2014 at 21:43

Dellinger wrote: dr prog wrote: Some good tracks. Probably should have been trimmed to 40 minute album Actually, I believe the problem with many albums since the introduction of the CD is that many artists feel the need to fill the CD of music, and often they end up including sub-par songs in order to do that. On the time of vinyl, they had to choose better what would get in the album.

richardh wrote: Dellinger wrote: dr prog wrote: Some good tracks. Probably should have been trimmed to 40 minute album Actually, I believe the problem with many albums since the introduction of the CD is that many artists feel the need to fill the CD of music, and often they end up including sub-par songs in order to do that. On the time of vinyl, they had to choose better what would get in the album. BUT 'in the time of vinyl' you did also have 55 minute albums like SEBTP for instance that would have been better without a few tracks (imo) There will always be 'sub par' songs on any album. Have a Cigar and Siberian Khatru are two examples and there are loads more.

Yeah, that's why I said "with many" and "often". With Have a Cigar and Siberian Khatru, indeed I like those ones less than the rest of the album, but still they are good enough not to harm the albums they come for (both of which are 5 star masterpieces for me). On the other hand, SEBTP has at least "Battle of Epping Forest", which is annoying and long enough to make me drop a star from my apreciation of it.