ROCK ISLAND

I'm kind of hoping that Tull have left their Dire Straits thing from the previous album behind. Sadly it quickly becomes apparant that although this is a harder rocking album I still here those danged Dire Straits inflections - if I wanted Dire Straits that is what I would get hold of. "Kissing Willy" - Oh, so that's your name for that thing? Standard hard rock here. "The Rattlesnake Trail" - again standard flute laced rock. "Ears of Tin" - way better than the previous two tracks but nothing special. "Undressed to Kill" - Ok track but nothing to keep my mind on it. "Rock Island" - Ok track but which holds my interest better than the previous fare. "Heavy Water" - This far into the album this is easily the best track for me. Still straight ahead rock but it is interesting. "Another Christmas Song" - One thing that gets me down is the word Christmas as part of the name of a track - I just know that I'm invariably going to get a track that is aimed at the Christmas spend spree. Awwww we have to get that to play on Christmas eve. "The Whaler's Dues" - this is the tower of the album and a really tall one it is at that - I love this track not least for the fact that it speaks of a subject close to my heart. This is more like the Tull that I want to hear at this point. "Big Riff and Mando" - an ok track, nothing more or less. "Strange Avenues" - Early reference in the lyrics to Aqualung. This is the second track on the album that I really enjoy and seeing that it's the final track that's not saying much for the album at all. "Christmas Song (live) (bonus) - I enjoy this track - where has this Jethro Tull gone to? "Cheap Day Return / Mother Goose" (live) (bonus) - as per my comment relating to the previous track. "Locomotive Breath" - Oh where, oh where have they gone? - maybe I'll find em on the next release.

Well - the album doesn't make me want to throw out (as my son used to say when he was feeling particularly ill as a really young lad) but aside from two tracks it doesn't make me want to reach to turn up the volume either. 3 sad stars from me as it isn't at all bad if what you're looking for is standard rock fare and two tracks almost had me standing up and applauding insanely.