UNDER WRAPS

By 1984 the record buying public could expect anything from Jethro Tull who by this time had undergone more than a few stylistic deviations. 1980s "A" LP which was met with a considerable degree of dissension from critics and afficiados alike without a doubt gave Jethro Tull`s fearless leader Ian Anderson the incentive to return to somewhat more traditional Jethro Tull conventions on 1982s Broadsword & The Beast album. While this move was commercially safer for a band like Jethro Tull, Anderson was drawn more and more towards the futuristic sounds which were emerging from the likes Thomas Dolby, The Simple Minds and The Cocteau Twins . This, combined with a desire to break away from the mould of the seventies strengthened his resolve to have another essay with the trends of the eighties with Jethro Tull`s next project, Under Wraps, which would again run the gauntlet of discourse. Notwithstanding any previous critiques, the album is not the monumental catastrophe that it is oftentimes construed to be by some detractors who couldn`t come to terms with Jethro Tull within the context of the 1980s at which time just about the only band that was having any success with 70s progressive rock convictions was Marillion.

The work is in fact arguably one of the most lyrically solid of the whole Jethro Tull catalogue, exploring cloak & dagger cold war themes of intrigue and suspense dripping with imagery from such novels as The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Gorky Park and Funeral In Berlin. In order to convey the double-crossing world of world of femme fatales, double agents, traitors and assasins, Anderson looked towards cutting edge technology which was becoming available to artists at the time, particularily in the field of computer and digital recording technology which allowed for an appropriate cold clinical feel to the muisc suitable for such frosty cold war themes rather than the warm pastoral auras of the folky Jethro Tull of the past. Although some of these earlier elements are assimulated here, albeit in updated form, some of the music on Under Wraps fulfills Anderson`s designs for this new era and some of it fails miserably.

However one looks at it, two conspicuous factors contributed to the overall outcome of this highly experimental album, namely the absence of a live drummer in favour of a Linn drum machine (programmed by Anderson himself) and donated state-of-the-art keyboard products coutesy of the Fender Rhodes company. This gave Peter Vettesse, who provided the lush keyboard backdrops on Broadsword & The Beast, virtual artistic carte blanche which resulted in a case of the-kid-in-the-candy-shop syndrome at times. Glaring examples of this over-indulgence occur on tracks like Paparazzi, Automotive Science and Apogee, the latter of which is introduced by a garbled voice of a technician running down some sort of checklist which briefly captures the mood of a space mission. Jethro Tull meets Hawkwind? Something which could have worked here but falls apart on the launch pad before it can gain any altitude. But it`s not as directionless as Astronomy which again seems to have some potential by the very virtue of its futuristic lyrics and hints of a Tangerine Dream-like synth-pulse, but grinds to a halt morphing into a bad Euro-pop song. It`s a pity that Anderson didn`t capitalize on some of these fragmented moments of possibilities which he stumbles into not only here but throughout the work. Other tracks which suffer from Vetesse and Anderson overdoing it with the new toys include Nobody`s Car and Tundra the latter of which didn`t even make it on to the original vinyl release.

What does save Under Wraps is placing the four tracks that at least have some distant relationship with the Jethro Tull lineage at the beginning of the work. The opening upbeat numbers Lap Of Luxury and the title track nod back to the seventies with updated propensity. Lap Of Luxury was made into a video which recieved extensive airplay on MTV and Muchmusic in North America and is actually a passable eighties pop song with the "Nouvel Tull" touch as Anderson put it at the time. Though not as infectiousl as in the past, Anderson`s ubiquitous flute lurks throughout the work and is flaunted to reasonable effect on the third track, European Legacy which with it`s Spanish flavour is arguably the best piece on the album which evokes the plight of a defector. Other tracks which boster the work that appear later on are Heat which features some razor sharp guitar from Martin Barre ( who lists Under Wraps as his favourite Tull album! ) as well as Under Wraps #2 which captures the romance and intrigue of a dangerous liason returning to some acoustic guitar work.

In the reflective liner notes from the 2005 remaster ( which also includes the Lap Of Luxury video ) where Anderson gives the album a mini review himself, he expresses a 20/20 hindsight yearning to re-record the work with a live drummer but at the same time maintaining that his desire was to be more in tune with the times. Hence, Under Wraps is most definitely not a Jethro Tull album that will have any immediate dramatic impact especially on fans of the early seventies material, but given time there are some outstanding qualities to be found particularily the lyrics if one can remain impartial to some of the overblown Linn drumming and tawdry 80s Keyboard flash. Anderson does demonstrate that he could bring Jethro Tull up with the times here with some experiments that worked and some that didn`t. Bear in mind the harsher critiques of this album have come from those who were expecting more of a continuance of the previous Broadsword & The Beast album which was even beginning to sail into Spinal Tap waters when it was released in 1982 the very thing that Anderson wanted to avoid.

Rather than being written off as a casualty of the times, Jethro Tull should be commended here for their adventurous abandon, not relying entirely on past glories and laurels even if it meant courting the acrimony of their public. Nonetheless, Under Wraps is admittedly an acquired taste.