If you’re a diehard Jethro Tull fan, this won’t be news to you:
\ntheir 1980 album
\nA<\/i> was not originally supposed to be another Tull release.
\nFrontman Ian Anderson had decided to work on a solo album, but
\nsomehow the sessions materialized into something that felt more
\nlike a Jethro Tull project. (And the album’s name? One story I
\nremember is that the letter “A” was written on the box holding the
\nmaster tape, and the accidental title stuck.)<\/p>\n
The only album to feature drummer Mark Craney and
\nkeyboardist\/violinist Eddie Jobson as band members (as well as
\nlong-time guitarist Martin Barre and bassist Dave Pegg, who took
\nover for the late John Glascock),
\nA<\/i> is a halfway decent album. Let me rephrase that: Half of
\nA<\/i> is a good album. The rest is rather spotty – nothing too
\nsurprising for the output of Jethro Tull at this juncture in their
\ncareer.<\/p>\n
A more electric sounding album than more recent Tull albums of
\nthe time (moving away from the folk-rock of
\nSongs From The Wood<\/i> and
\nHeavy Horses<\/i>), A kicks off strongly with two winning tracks,
\n“Crossfire” and “Fylingdale Flyer”. (The latter track’s video was
\nprominently featured in the home video
\nSlipstream<\/i>, which any self-respecting Tull fan should search
\nout.) Both tracks feature more challenging rhythm patterns that
\nforced the band to raise the bar on their playing. Especially
\nnoteworthy are the layered harmony vocals that Anderson uses,
\nproving without a doubt that he is one of the premier vocalists of
\nhis time. Jobson’s keyboard work is outstanding, making me wonder
\nwhy he didn’t last longer with the band.<\/p>\n
A more gentle side of Jethro Tull is presented at the close of
\nA<\/i>; “And Further On” is a surprising change of pace from the
\nremainder of the music featured on this album, but is a pleasant
\ntwist coming at the right time. And lest you think that Tull turned
\naway completely from the folksy sounds that had made up the bulk of
\ntheir late-’70s career, “The Pine Marten’s Jig” erases any of those
\nthoughts.<\/p>\n
The real powerhouse on
\nA<\/i> is “Black Sunday,” a track that actually is overshadowed
\nby the live version featured on
\nSlipstream<\/i>. Still, this version packs quite a punch, and
\nremains one of the underappreciated tracks in Jethro Tull’s
\ncareer.<\/p>\n
If only the entire album were this strong. “Working John,
\nWorking Joe” wouldn’t have been a bad track, but there is far too
\nmuch repetition in the structure of the verses, rendering this
\ntrack rather bland in the end. The remainder of the material, such
\nas “Batteries Not Included,” “Uniform” and “4.W.D. (Low Ratio)” are
\nnowhere nearly as well-written as the other previously mentioned
\ntracks. In a sense, it’s almost like Anderson and crew poured their
\nall into just five songs, then cast out the other five as
\nhalf-hearted attempts. Too bad; if these were even half the songs
\nthat tracks like “Black Sunday” were, this would have been a better
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
\nA<\/i> is still an album that is worth searching out, seeing that
\nthe decent tracks from this one have been criminally ignored for
\nfar too long. But approach the remainder of the album with extreme
\ncaution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5643],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-36219","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\/36219","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=36219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36219"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36219"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}