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

richardh wrote: Dellinger wrote: 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. yep although perhaps 'Masterpeice' should be only be reserved for those mythical albums that are completely perfect

Mmm... that would make "6 Wives of Henry the VIII" more of a masterpiece to me, for on that album every song is amazing in my book... however, in the end, I feel "Close to the Edge" and "Wish you Were Here" are better albums in the end (if only a little bit so).

I was not impressed by Homo Erraticus or it's predecessor as can be seen from my reviews of both albums. The mere fact that Opahle sounds almost exactly like Martin Barre on both albums is a dead give away to Anderson's intent on making formulaic Tull sounding prog albums which I frankly find insulting. It begs one to ask the question 'What is progressive about copying your own sound?' The A album was more progressive than these two albums, IMO.

Edited by SteveG - July 15 2014 at 16:13

richardh wrote: Dellinger wrote: richardh wrote: Dellinger wrote: 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. yep although perhaps 'Masterpeice' should be only be reserved for those mythical albums that are completely perfect Mmm... that would make "6 Wives of Henry the VIII" more of a masterpiece to me, for on that album every song is amazing in my book... however, in the end, I feel "Close to the Edge" and "Wish you Were Here" are better albums in the end (if only a little bit so). Yep Wakeman nailed it with Six Wives. I still remember where I was (over a friends house) when I first heard that album. I love the split of tracks drumming wise. Alan for the play loud and fast tracks , Bill for the melodic ones. Perfect

I have for a long time felt (as is the case with the vast majority of proggers), that White was a clear step down from Brufords virtuosity... which is rather frustrating for me, since that Yes line-up from Fragile and CttE is like the most perfect prog line-up in my book, and once Bruford left it lost that perfect quality, since White seems a step below the rest of the band. However, in Six Wives, I think White takes the best, or at least my favourite, performance of the album. I thind it's on the track Anne of Cleves, if I remember the wife correctly.

Homo Erraticus has some excellent flute playing and lyrics.  For me, owning the CD with the better sound quality does it justice.  I too was not thrilled listening to samples on other sites.  Anyone buying Homo Erraticus should know that it is not a Jethro Tull album.  If you compare it to Jethro Tull, then that is your option.  As a solo album, it is excellent and way better than much of the music that is out there today.

^ Yeah, it's pretty unmemorable. Only listened to it once so far though.

I like the album.  It's very old Tull derivative, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself.  But I've made two new artist discoveries that I enjoy much much more...


Edited by Slartibartfast - May 31 2014 at 11:26

SteveG wrote: I was not impressed by Homo Erraticus or it's predecessor as can be seen from my reviews of both albums. The mere fact that Opahle sounds almost exactly like Martin Barre on both albums is a dead give away to Anderson's intent on making formulaic Tull sounding prog albums which I frankly find insulting. It begs one to ask the question "What is progressive about copying your own sound?" The A album was more progressive than these two albums, IMO.

I haven't listened to the album yet, but just as an FYI to anyone who isn't aware, Florian Opahle played guitar with Greg Lake's tour sometime in the middle of the last decade. A DVD was made in 2006 called simply, Greg Lake Live. Opahle played a fair portion of Keith Emerson's parts. I wonder out loud what Opahle would sound like if he played like himself instead of someone else.

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Originally posted by SteveG

I was not impressed by Homo Erraticus or it's predecessor as can be seen from my reviews of both albums. The mere fact that Opahle sounds almost exactly like Martin Barre on both albums is a dead give away to Anderson's intent on making formulaic Tull sounding prog albums which I frankly find insulting. It begs one to ask the question "What is progressive about copying your own sound?" The A album was more progressive than these two albums, IMO.

I haven't listened to the album yet, but just as an FYI to anyone who isn't aware, Florian Opahle played guitar with Greg Lake's tour sometime in the middle of the last decade. A DVD was made in 2006 called simply, Greg Lake Live. Opahle played a fair portion of Keith Emerson's parts. I wonder out loud what Opahle would sound like if he played like himself instead of someone else.
originally posted by HackettFan

One thing that sort of disapointed me when listening to this album on the Web was that I had once read about Ian saying it would be a sort of Prog Metal album... it seems that was only a joke (and perhaps it wasn't even Anderson's joke). It would have been cool to hear Anderson doing something a bit heavier.

I didn't hear any metal guitars, or particularly heavy guitars at all... though there were some nice solos. However, I wasn't really paying my whole attention, so I might just as well have missed it. However, one brief metal moment doesn't make an album prog-folk-metal, so I do would have liked a bit more heavy moments. Actually, when I read that, I didn't really expect it to go all the way to prog metal, but at least I expected something a bit heavier than what Anderson is used to give us.