J-TULL DOT COM

I don't understand why this album is rated so low. To be sure, it is not as good as the fantastic Roots To Branches album, but most things are not as good as that! With the exception of Roots To Branches, J-Tull Dot Com was easily the best Jethro Tull album for a long, long time.

Dot Com continues basically where Roots To Branches left off, the eastern influenced melodies that made that album such a big success is still here on several songs. The guitar sound has that same hard rock/metal sound to it on several songs. The flutes are varied and incredibly well played and well recorded. While listening to this album in my headphones, it sounds as if Ian Anderson is standing right behind me! The keyboards are allowed more space than on most Jethro Tull albums, and they sound great!

The vocals are great too and Ian sounds more energized here than on most of the bands 80's and 90's albums. The songs are generally short, but this does not mean that they are simple. Short songs can be progressive too, you know! And these songs are.

The general tone of the album is a bit more laid back, and a little bit less serious than the darker Roots To Branches. But this is not a whimsical piece of work. The songs fit very well together to make up a full, coherent album. Though, I admit it took a couple of listenings before the songs in the middle started to sound great to my ears.

Jehtro Tull continues to mesmerize me with this album and even if it certainly isn't the best of the band's many albums, I would not hesitate to hold this album up as an exemplar of the kind of music I like. That a band could make such interesting music after more than 30 years in the business is simply stunning.

Highly recommended!