CD Odyssey Disc 1255: Jethro Tull

I’m nearing the end of a very relaxed weekend and will shortly be meeting up with some wonderful people. I’ll be walking there, so I’m squeezing this review in now so I can listen to something new on the way over.

Disc 1255 is… Stand Up

Artist: Jethro Tull

Year of Release: 1969

What’s up with the Cover? The band, re-imagined as leprechauns. No wait - after looking at a photo of the band in the liner notes I can confirm…this is what these guys look like.

How I Came to Know It: I think my friend Chris introduced me to this album. I can’t remember if he also bought me the CD as a gift or if I picked it up independently. I think the latter (Chris did get me two other Jethro Tull albums as a gift, so you can understand my confusion).

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Jethro Tull albums. Of the five, I must reluctantly place “Stand Up” in last place.

Ratings:  3 stars

I really like Jethro Tull’s eighties synthesizer-heavy period, but my relationship with their earlier stuff is…complicated. “Stand Up” is very early Tull, and while I admire the talent, I can’t always go where this album wants to take me.

First the good stuff. This record has some exceptional musicianship. The songs are complex, but the talent is so high everything remains crisp. Also, guitarist Martin Barre delivers some killer rock guitar throughout the record.

The album is of its time and has that late sixties hippy vibe which works well with Ian Anderson’s vibrato vocals. The mix of folk and rock elements works well in places, particularly on “Back to the Family” that blends pastoral imagery with stoner guitar in ways that shouldn’t work but does. Even the jazz flute works here.

The record is also funny in places. “Fat Man” is the whimsical consideration of a slender Ian Anderson of what sort of challenges he’d face if he were fat. Among them, “People would think I was just good fun.” I guess being considered jolly and nothing else would grate over time.

However, even on the songs I liked on “Stand Up” it just felt like too much was going on. I don’t mind some progressive rock, but I would have preferred a little bit more focus. And as for those cool Barre guitar licks, there just aren’t enough of them. I had a hard time concentrating and when I did concentrate it often felt like work.

Also, despite this being rock music there is a lot of jazz going on with this record, and I’m not just talking about all that flute business either. There is jazz in the drums, jazz in the bass, jazz in the melodic structures. This record has jazz lurking around every corner.

“Bouree” sounds like Dave Brubeck was kidnapped by faeries. Brubeck is one of my favourite jazz musicians, but I don’t want him mucking about with my folk music like this. At least “Nothing Is Easy” provides a warning the title that the song is going to feature all manner of crazy arrangements that are both brilliant and annoying. You know, like jazz.

My copy of the record has four bonus tracks which are OK but pushes the album to 51 minutes but felt even longer. By the end, I was just feeling fatigued from the busyness of it all.

“Stand Up” is music for music nerds, which means I should like it. I definitely want to like it, and I’m even a little ashamed that I don’t, but there it is. I’m going to acknowledge I’m objectively wrong about how good this record is and give it 3 stars. That said, I’m not going to keep it.

Best tracks: Back to the Family, Fat Man, Look Into the Sun

CD Odyssey Disc 1228: Jethro Tull

After a long day at the office I spent the first part of my evening shoveling snow. I love the feel of a winter wonderland when it snows, but after a few days of it, I could do without the shoveling.

Disc 1228 is… Crest of a Knave

Artist: Jethro Tull

Year of Release: 1987

What’s up with the Cover? It’s…the crest of a knave. This particular crest is a fraidy-cat sable on a field of azure and argent. I assume this particular noble is a cousin to brave brave Sir Robin.

How I Came To Know It: My friend Chris played some tracks off of this album at a recent music night and I liked what I heard. Then he went one step further and gave me his copy of the CD (he is now a vinyl devotee so CDs are either too old school or too new school, depending on your perspective).

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Jethro Tull albums. I’m not sure how that happened, but for the most part I blame Chris. I like “Crest of a Knave” a lot, but I’m going to put it in at #2 and leave a little space at the top.

Ratings:  4 stars

It is not every day that a record could best Metallica in its heyday to win music’s most prestigious honour – a Grammy – but that’s exactly what Jethro Tull’s “Crest of a Knave” did, beating out “…and Justice For All” for best hard rock album.

Just kidding! The Grammys aren’t music’s most prestigious honour; they’re shite and have been for years. Also, “Crest of a Knave” is not a hard rock album. It’s more of a cross between synth-rock and prog-rock. The beating Metallica part is true, though. The Grammys may have a hundred different categories but that doesn’t mean they can’t consistently fail to nominate albums in the right ones.

But enough about how much the Grammys suck!* Let’s talk about “Crest of a Knave” which despite winning an award in the wrong category is still a fine record.

While for most of the sixties and seventies Jethro Tull was a mix of progressive rock with a dash of traditional English folk, in the eighties they discovered a more synth-driven sound and their music took a different turn. By 1987, Jethro Tull had balanced out all that synthesizer with more traditional instrumentation the sensibility remained. This was made easier by the ever-present flute in all their music, which is the synthiest of the woodwinds.

Balancing those ethereal sounds is guitarist Martin Barre, who shows off some inspired playing. His tone is reminiscent of Mark Knopfler and if you are going to sound too much like someone else on the guitar, you couldn’t pick any better than Knopfler. Barre has some fine solos on the record, particularly the bluesy meanderings he displays on “Said She Was a Dancer”.

 “Said She Was a Dancer” is the star of the record, a song about a chance encounter with a Russian woman that is less romantic than the narrator would have hoped for. The song walks a fine line between mystery, romance and some self-effacing humour from a man who is getting played by a lady out of his league but enjoying every minute of it.

The theme is explored further with “Hot Night in Budapest” which is twice and long and sees the narrator twice as successful as well. Again, the song is heavily reminiscent of Dire Straits in its base groove, before departing down more proggy side paths of jazz flue and creative syncopation.

Lyrically the record is sneaky good, with Anderson delivering many a clever turn of phrase. “Said She Was a Dancer” ends with:

“So I stole one kiss, it was a near miss. She looked at me like I was Jack the Ripper.

She leaned in close. “Goodnight” was all she said

So I took myself off to bed.”

Missed it by that much!

“Mountain Men” is a love song from Anderson to his native Scotland, starting the song with:

“The poacher and his daughter throw soft shadows on the water in the night

A thin moon slips behind them as they pull the net with no betraying light.”

Instantly you can feel yourself grounded in the scene and as the song unfolds Anderson’s love for his homeland becomes more and more clear. The song feels heartfelt throughout without ever feeling contrived or emotionally manipulative.

Anderson is a natural story teller, although I sometimes found myself wishing his elfin vibrato vocal had a bit more gravitas. While this is part of what makes Jethro Tull’s sound, on an album designed with such a lush soundscape he sometimes sounds a bit thin by comparison.

This is a minor quibble though, and overall “Crest of a Knave” was an enjoyable listen, melodically interesting, lyrically engaging and featuring some fine work on both the guitar and the flute.

*while I maintain the Grammys suck, a big shout out to two of my favourite artists who overcame the usual bad decisions made there to win one this year – Brandi Carlile and St. Vincent!

Best tracks: Said She Was a Dancer, Budapest, Mountain Men, The Waking Edge

CD Odyssey Disc 259: Jethro Tull

The last review was that rare example of an album with eighteen tracks, but that didn't drag.

Now for the other side of that equation.

Disc 259 is...Broadsword and the Beast

Artist: Jethro Tull

Year of Release: 1982

What’s Up With The Cover?: Only one of the most kick ass covers ever. I'd just like to take a moment and give a big shout out to all those prog bands out there that work so hard to make these kind of ridiculous, over-the-top, 'I roll D20s recreationally, kind of cover art. Here we have a faerie feller with a broadsword - no doubt preparing to deliver his master stroke. If you know that last reference congratulations - you know you're prog rock.

How I Came To Know It: I have known Jethro Tull since my old room-mate Greg brought home "Aqualung" and "Thick As a Brick" back in the early nineties. This album I only knew through a T shirt my buddy Kelly owned. He didn't have the record, but found the cover art irresistable, like any sane person would. I bought some Jethro Tull, because the other Jethro Tull albums I'd heard all appealed to me (the above two plus an earlier one called "Stand Up" my friend Tony brought over). I bought this particular album for the cover art - duh.

How It Stacks Up: I only have this one Jethro Tull album, so it can't really stack up. I will say that it isn't as good as any of the other three I've heard that are owned by friends. I guess details matter.

Rating: 2 stars. It could have made it to three, but it was guilty of some cardinal sins, which I could not forgive (see below).

For those of you who don't know, Jethro Tull is the name of this funny looking British guy, who can play the flute while standing on one leg. He is often accompanied by a bunch of other anonymous musicians.

Just kidding! Jethro Tull is the name of a prog band, that features a guy who can play the flute standing on one foot. They are mostly famous for their albums from the late sixties and seventies, but were still going in 1982 when they put out "Broadsword and the Beast".

Prog bands never feel particularly bound by what they are 'supposed' to sound like - a quality that endears them to their fans as much as it alienates them from everyone else. I like this quality, but it has an interesting effect in the early 1980s, when synthesizers became a big deal in musical production.

These bands decided they needed to incorporate this new sound. The Blue Oyster Cult equivalent would be "Revolution By Night", and succeeds admirably well. "Broadsword and the Beast" is no "Revolution By Night" but it is certainly passable.

Where Blue Oyster Cult went for the way synth evokes the extra-terrestrial, Jethro Tull uses it to make the songs majestic, and fantastical. This decision makes the whole album sound in large part like the theme music to an early eighties fantasy movie. Think "Ladyhawke" but where the music doesn't completely suck.

As a result of their production decisions, the best songs on this album are the ones that fully embrace the majesty of places far away, and long ago. "Beastie", "Slow Marching Band" and "Broadsword" all come to mind favourably.

"Broadsword" in particular appeals to me; a song set in the dark ages, in a community girding itself to repel approaching sea raiders (I imagine Vikings). Best line:

"Bring me my broadsword and clear understanding."

The way Jethro Tull lays this line down, with pounding background synthesizer standing in for trumpet, you can feel the heft of the blade yourself, even in the comfort of your living room. No D20s required, although they wouldn't feel out of place.

Ordinarily the strong songs on this album would be enough to score 3 stars on the CD Odyssey, but not this time.

That's because the Soulless Record Exec decided to add nine - yes nine - bonus tracks to the remastered CD, when the original album only had ten songs to begin with.

If you're going to double the length of the album, you better be sure those songs are necessary inclusions - or if not necessary, at least memorable. Sadly, no - they are largely filler. How dare these guys make me choose between non-remastered sound, and an entire extra album worth of chaff?

Bring me my demerit marker, and clear understanding.

Best tracks: Beastie, Slow Marching Band, Broadsword