In many ways,
\nCrest Of A Knave<\/i>, the 1987 “comeback” album by British
\nrockers Jethro Tull, has been vilified, mostly because of its
\ncontroversial win at the Grammys as Best Hard Rock\/Heavy Metal
\nperformance.<\/p>\n
Of course, anyone with half a brain (which apparently isn’t a
\nrequirement to be a voter for the Grammys) knows that Jethro Tull
\nis neither hard rock nor heavy metal. In fact, after listening to
\nIan Anderson and crew now for nearly two decades, I know it’s
\nimpossible to pigeonhole the band into any specific category. Are
\nthere some rocking moments on this disc? Yes — but there are
\nnumerous introspective songs that balance things out. In the end,
\nthe disc comes off as tentative — maybe even a little too
\ntentative.<\/p>\n
Right off the bat, we need to cut the group some slack. Jethro
\nTull had been searching for their voice for most of the ’80s,
\nthanks to the surge in popularity of synthesizer-based rock in the
\nearly half of the decade. Tull tried their hand at this, with
\nminimal success — in turn, they all but turned their back on their
\nguitar-driven roots, which was an ill-advised move. In addition,
\nAnderson had to undergo throat surgery in the mid-’80s, which
\nchanged his vocal sound a bit. It’s a little weird hearing Anderson
\nin this shape, but one quickly warms to his adjusted tones.<\/p>\n
There still is enough electronica on
\nCrest Of A Knave<\/i> to suggest that Tull had finally worked
\nthrough the feeling-out phase and had found the right balance
\nbetween it and a more organic sound. The opening track “Steel
\nMonkey,” while not the greatest song Tull had come up with in their
\n20 years of existence to that point, is still a respectable effort,
\nand is one of the more memorable songs on the disc.<\/p>\n
Likewise, “Jump Start” is a return to form for the group, and it
\nis thrilling to hear Martin Barre’s guitar work again brought to
\nthe forefront. Quite possibly the hardest rocking song that Tull
\nhad recorded in over a decade, Barre makes the most of his time in
\nthe limelight, showing why he is probably one of the most
\nunderrated lead guitarists of his time.<\/p>\n
The bulk of
\nCrest Of A Knave<\/i>, while listenable and somewhat enjoyable,
\ndoes tend to wear the listener down a bit. Maybe it’s the 10-minute
\nepic “Budapest” which just doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Maybe it’s
\nthe lack of real venom in “Farm On The Freeway,” otherwise a very
\ngood song. Maybe it’s the listlessness of other tracks like “Dogs
\nIn The Midwinter.” By the time the listener reaches the end of the
\ndisc, songs like “The Waking Edge” and “Raising Steam” (the latter
\nhaving more than slight similarities to “Steel Monkey”) come as a
\nrelief.<\/p>\n
It would be fair to say that
\nCrest Of A Knave<\/i> was the strongest album Jethro Tull had
\nrecorded since
\nA<\/i> (and I realize I’m opening up a can of worms with that
\nstatement), but it would also be fair to say that Jethro Tull still
\nwas a group from the past trying to figure a way to survive in the
\npresent. This is, by no means, a bad album, and does deserve more
\nattention than glancing at it for its controversial history. But
\nwhile the disc has some great moments, it wasn’t quite yet a return
\nto the group’s halcyon days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5643],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-38036","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\/38036","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=38036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38036"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}