ROOTS TO BRANCHES

1995 saw the release of Jethro Tull's next album, Roots to Branches. Andy Giddings was brought on as a full-time keyboard player, and the band finally moved away from the dull-as-dirt 1980s hard rock sound. Longtime bassist Dave Pegg left the band partway through recording and appears on only a handful of tracks. He wouldn't be formally replaced until after the album was released.

The music here was strongly influenced by a trip Ian Anderson took to India. Assorted "Eastern" motifs crop up all over this album. Anderson also seems to have regained some musical ambition on this album. Some hints of the band's prog-rock past are detectable. Aiding this is the fact that Anderson continued to adjust his limited vocal range. He (mostly) doesn't sound strained and works well within his limitations.

The title track opens the album with an immediately-evident shift in sound. A distorted riff builds gently, and Anderson's flute playing has taken on a different, more delicate quality. The calm verses segue smoothly into higher-energy choruses. Andy Giddings is a massive improvement over past releases where Anderson was in charge of the keys. His synth tones are smart and complementary. (Note: Giddings did contribute on a few songs on Catfish Rising.)

"Rare and Precious Chain" draws heavily from "world" music, that vaguely-"Eastern" genre of easy-listening ambiance which saw a spike in popularity in the 1990s. But while the synth tones or Indian scales may not have aged super-well, this is still an enjoyable mixture of those influences with unusual progressive rock riffs. It just very much sounds of its era.

Roots to Branches thrives on songs like "Rare and Precious Chain". "Valley" is another strong synthesis of progressive rock and "world music". The alternating lightweight acoustic moments and bluesy, electric riffs work together shockingly well. "Dangerous Veils" continues the successful streak. It contains one of Anderson's best flute lines, coupled with an engaging melody in the chorus. The solo in this song doesn't quite work, though. The jazziness is out-of-nowhere and incongruous.

Not everything on this album is great. "This Free Will" is one of the less-successful songs on Roots to Branches. It feels like something that could have been on Catfish Rising, but they decided to tack on some "Eastern" aesthetics, via the strings and mock-shehnai synthesizer. "At Last Forever" drags on for far too long, does far too little, and the vocals are far too dramatic.

"Wounded, Old and Treacherous" is my personal favorite on this album. This is their best song since "Black Sunday" off A, way back in 1980. It's slow-building with a fun, jazzy backbone, and Anderson wrote some clever lyrics for the first time in a long time.

Ian Anderson has compared Roots to Branches to Stand Up, and I can agree with him to a degree. Stand Up is the unquestionably stronger album, but both albums feature a wide swathe of often-incongruous musical influences that the band somehow made work. These two albums also stand in sharp contrast with both their respective predecessors.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2019/07/25/deep-dive-jethro-tull/