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Jethro Tull - Aqualung CD (album) cover

AQUALUNG

Jethro Tull

 

Prog Folk

4.37 | 2920 ratings

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Garion81
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
5 stars "When I was Young"

Many believe this is the definitive album from Jethro Tull. It certainly is the most popular but that is hardly a consideration to make it definitive. Ian Anderson doesn't feel it to be so and doesn't like the sound of the CD. Even that shouldn't come into play when saying this is the definitive Tull album. It certainly bears exploring deeper into the album. First the album adds much more keyboards into the works especially John Evans piano that isn't so much present on earlier albums with a slight exception to some used on Benefit. Much more acoustic guitar is employed as well so the colors that shaped the blues style are less evidence here.

The title track has been played so much on classic rock radio that it is hard to evaluate it anymore. It is a great rock song that almost plays out as a mini suite with several different parts to it. There is the blast of the guitar that leads into the first part very hard rock part that gives way to an acoustic bridge that builds back into the rock song with the memorable lines "You snatch your rattling last breaths with a deep sea diver sounds and the flowers bloom like madness in the spring" that leads into the classic guitar solo by Martin Barr.

So we see several of the things that Tull was and what was to come all rolled into this one song. Building on the dynamics of the acoustic/electric that would come to fruit on unquestionably Tull's best prog album, Thick as a Brick. Yet you still hear that little blues band sound still mixed into the fray as well. The whole album moves that way and back to the other several times. Cross Eyed Mary, Up to Me and Locomotive Breath harkens back to the blues roots. While My God and Wind Up look more to the near future of the prog band. One thing that is consistent in this period is that classic folk sound that Ian always seems to embrace with Cheap Day Return, Wondering Aloud and Slipstream fitting that style.

A good Tull album but an all time classic of prog rock and rock in general. If you think in terms of Tulls catalog from 1969 through 1977 this is certainly one of the high points. This album deserves it 5 stars proudly.

Garion81 | 5/5 |

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