AQUALUNG

Let's put it this way: when I was a freshman in college, I don't think there was a dorm room I visited that did not have a copy of Cat Stevens' Tea For the Tillerman or Jethro Tull's Aqualung sitting next to the stereo. The album was that pervasive.

As for my review: the classic songs on Aqualung have been so overplayed over the years that I cannot remember my original response to them. I am sure it was positive, but I'm afraid the initial awe of some of these has been slowly whittled away by their now over-familiarity. Aqualung, Cross-eyed Mary, Hymn 43, and Locomotive Breath have to rank up there with Stairway to Heaven and Freebird as some of the most overplayed songs in history. Consider: these songs were so prevalent on AOR FM stations that now they are almost cloying to these ears. Not a bad recommendation at all for a newcomer to this album.

Tull had been looking for a 'sound' for a few albums and finally found it.

The heavy hitters having already been mentioned, the rest of the album doesn't measure up to that level. There are good enough songs, but the great songs set the bar perhaps a little too high.

The bonus songs are nice to have but add nothing to the excellence of the original release. I'd say this rates a very solid 4 stars. Us Tull fans were still waiting for that breakthrough album.