It’s safe to say that Jethro Tull was a band that was searching
\nfor its voice throughout a good portion of the ’80s. The
\nprogressive rock glory days (
\nAqualung<\/i>,
\nThick As A Brick<\/i>) were gone, as was the folk-rock period (
\nMinstrel In The Gallery<\/i>,
\nSongs From The Wood<\/i>). Ian Anderson and crew even were
\nlabeled “metal”, for which they won their first Grammy. (Sorry,
\nNARAS, but that was a major blunder you guys made. Calling Jethro
\nTull metal is like calling Al Green a devil-worshiper.)<\/p>\n
In 1984, Jethro Tull took their second dip into the electronic
\nmusic pool with
\nUnder Wraps<\/i>. Possibly brought on because of Anderson’s
\nrecent solo effort
\nWalk Into Light<\/i> (which I haven’t dusted off now in about 10
\nyears), the recently-trimmed down band (in lieu of a drummer,
\nAnderson handled the electronic drums) struggles again to find its
\nvoice – and while they do so on occasion, the disc overall
\ndisappoints. Maybe that’s why this particular album seems to be out
\nof print right now.<\/p>\n
I normally am bugged by the use of electronic drums, for the
\nsimple reason that they sound so sterile. No drummer ever hits a
\nhi-hat cymbal or snare drum exactly the same way twice like
\nsynthesized drums capture. However, I am willing to grant a little
\nslack to Anderson, for the simple reason that drums are not his
\ninstrument of note.<\/p>\n
But I will not be so generous in noting that a strong guitar
\npresence is often missed in this album. Martin Barre is not given
\nnearly the chances he deserves to shine on the six-string, though
\nwhen the spotlight is put on him, he delivers the goods. Bassist
\nDavid Pegg and keyboardist Peter Vettese round out this particular
\nTull incarnation, both seemingly doing a good job (if not relying
\non Vettese too much).<\/p>\n
It’s interesting to note that the cassette version of
\nUnder Wraps<\/i> features two songs that were not on the album,
\nwhile I’ve seen track listings including songs that weren’t on the
\ntape. (I own the cassette, for the record, so it’s not that I’m
\nignoring a track or two, it’s just that I don’t own them.) I sure
\nhope the tracks I’m missing were better than “Astronomy” and
\n“Automotive Engineering,” the two bonus cuts on the tape. Anderson
\nmust have grabbed a college catalog for these, ’cause they’re far
\nfrom typical Tull.<\/p>\n
However, tracks like “Lap Of Luxury” and the two versions of the
\ntitle track do redeem things in my eyes. “Lap Of Luxury” easily
\ncould have been a hit single on rock radio, while “Under Wraps #2”
\nis the superior version, returning to a more acoustic, folk-rock
\nsound for a short time.<\/p>\n
And it’s not that
\nUnder Wraps<\/i> is a failure. Songs lie “Radio Free Moscow,”
\n“Nobody’s Car” and “Later That Same Evening” all shine, even if
\nthey sound a little too sterile due to overreliance on the
\nelectronics. However, other tracks like “Paparazzi” and “Saboteur”
\nshow reason for worry among the Tull fans.<\/p>\n
If this album wasn’t reason enough for hand-wringing, this is
\nthe last time on album that Anderson’s vocals have sounded like the
\nold days. He underwent surgery on his vocal chords that kept Tull
\non the sidelines for a couple of years – and, in the process,
\nchanged his voice to sound more harsh. So, it is good to hear the
\n“classic” voice of Tull for one last time.<\/p>\n
\nUnder Wraps<\/i> is not a terrible album by general standards,
\nbut it’s hardly a great album by Jethro Tull’s standards. For the
\ndie-hard Tull fan, it’s still worth searching out, if only to say
\nthat you own it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5643],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-36018","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jethro-tull","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36018"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36018"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}