After two albums that were essentially album-length songs, Ian
\nAnderson and crew return with songs of a more manageable length.
\nWar Child<\/i> picks up where Aqulung left off, with Anderson
\nreturning to a familiar lyrical tack reminiscent of songs from
\nAqualung, with highly metaphorical commentaries on war, government,
\nreligion, and the plight of everyman. This album has always been a
\npersonal favorite of mine, and despite poor reviews (reviewers are
\nidiots anyway, right?), it was well received in the U.K, but more
\ncoolly in the U.S. The songs are very strong and two of the songs,
\n“Bungle In The Jungle” and “Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of A New
\nDay,” are Tull standards that are a regular part of their live
\narsenal, and always appear on the many Tull compilations that seem
\nto be released about one per month. Some criticism alludes to a
\nless powerful album, when compared to
\nAqualung<\/i>. If this is the case,
\nWar Child<\/i> makes up tenfold in powerful arrangements what it
\nmay or may not be missing lyrically. Personally,
\nWar Child<\/i> stands up to any Tull album in my book.<\/p>\n
Musically, the band at this stage in their career is one that
\nhas found a comfortable union with its musical identity, and uses
\nthat to good effect, creating masterful compositions to accompany
\nAnderson’s highly cryptic and dense lyrics. Their unique melding of
\nprogressive rock, jazz, and Euro-centric folk music had by now
\nfallen fast and firm on the ears of it’s growing fans, essentially
\ncreating a genre of its own. Truly, there is no other band that
\ncomes remotely close to their style and over 30+ years, they have
\nmaintained always at minimum a nuance of that core sound, no mater
\nhow far afield their inspiration takes them. Much of this album was
\nintended for a film score for a film that was never made, but the
\nsongs retain a bit of the instrumentation one would expect from
\nsongs written for film. They deftly use strings and other
\norchestral accompaniments in a powerful yet restrained manner,
\ngiving the arrangements a full, lush sound without overpowering the
\ncore sound of the band.<\/p>\n
The title track is not-very subtle euphemism for the young men,
\nsome almost children, which we send off to war. With the sounds of
\nbombs exploding in the background, Anderson sings merrily about the
\nadventures that await young men of arms. The juxtaposition of the
\nupbeat melody and the lyrics is both ironic and twisted. War is a
\ncommon theme throughout the album. On the anthemic “Queen And
\nCountry” it continues, with a tale of soldiers far from home,
\nreveling in the bountiful pleasures that are the fortunes of war,
\nwhile wrestling with homesickness and the death that surrounds all
\nmen of arms. Tull uses what sounds like a full-blown orchestra to
\ncreate the appropriate degree of pomp and majesty to support the
\nlyrics.<\/p>\n
The only hit single, “Bungle In The Jungle,” has become a
\nclassic radio staple. Behind the tongue in cheek puns, Anderson
\nuses his gift for words to create a multi-leveled commentary on big
\nbusiness, God and modern city life. (I told you his lyrics were
\ndense). Often dismissed as superficial, the jungle metaphor aptly
\ndescribes Anderson’s conceptualization of Darwinian theory applied
\nto modern society. On a deeper level, he again examines the nature
\nof God and His machinations, “He who made kittens put snakes in the
\ngrass.”<\/p>\n
On the lighter side, “Ladies” is a beautifully arranged acoustic
\nsong with Anderson doing some of his best vocal work. The strongest
\npiece of this set is another quieter number, the classic “Skating
\nAway On The Thin Ice Of A New Day,” which is a staple of their live
\nshow. Anderson’s rather bitter look at life — “Well, do you ever
\nget the feeling that the story’s too damn real and in the present
\ntense? \/ Or that everybody’s on the stage, and it seems like you’re
\nthe only person sitting in the audience?” — is masked behind a
\nlovely arrangement featuring acoustic guitar and accordion.<\/p>\n
The album closes with two of my favorite Tull songs, the
\nrollicking “Third Hurrah,” in which Tull applies every musical
\ninstrument known to man to create a huge sound, and the smirking
\n“Two Fingers,” which revisits two of Anderson’s favorite themes,
\nGod and death.<\/p>\n
“I’ll see you at the Weighing-In, when your life’s sum-total’s
\nmade. And you set your wealth in goodly deeds against the sins
\nyou’ve laid”<\/p>\n
The “weighing-in” being the holy judgment that may or may not
\nawait us all when we die. The suggestion being that we’d better
\nhave made our contribution at church before we depart this life, or
\nwe’ll end up in the cheap seats (“He’ll say, ‘You really should
\nmake this deal’ as he offers round the hat”).<\/p>\n
Personally I put this right up there with
\nAqualung<\/i>. This is an album every Tull fan should own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":26628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5643],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-38020","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jethro-tull","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38020","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\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38020"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}