Jethro Tull: The Zealot Gene - 2022
Who would have expected that Jethro Tull would return in 2022 with their first proper album in nearly twenty-three years? Certainly not me.
Apart from the seemingly ageless and now bald Ian Anderson, it is an all-new line-up, but one that plays totally in the Tull tradition. It is really well produced, with a warm but crystal clear sound that my Sonos system delivers really impressively.
Mrs Tibbets kicks the album off superbly, with Ian Anderson's flute whistling, fluttering and trilling all over the place like a deranged songbird - a real blast from the past and some quality, solid rock riffs are present throughout the song and there's a killer fuzzy guitar solo near the end. Indeed, you would have thought Martin Barre was still there. I love this. It plays with a totally unexpected vitality. It is my favourite track on the album, and not simply because it's the first one.
There was always an essential folkiness to Tull, and Jacob's Tales is a short acoustic guitar and harmonica number very much in the pastoral style. The harmonica is wonderful on this, is indeed is the whole atmosphere. Once more, it really appeals to me. By the way, there is supposedly a concept to the album - Biblical I believe - but those sort of claims have always passed me by. Any reader of my reviews will know that I treat concept albums with an innate suspicion. Anyway, the mysterious, intriguing and slightly haunting flute-based slow, ethereal rock of Mine Is The Mountain is a fine track, whatever concept it is supposed to fit in with.
The Zealot Gene is a powerful and dramatic flute, drums and guitar chunky rock song that perfectly exemplifies Tull's one third prog/two thirds rock sound. Anderson's voice is still as strong as a pair of oxen by the way, no geriatric croaking or damaged vocal chords to be heard here. I was quite amazed and pleasantly surprised when I heard just how robust he sounds. He has become a veritable Methuselah of music.
Shoshana Sleeping bursts into life with some classic Tull flutery and a staccato but industrially reliable beat that immediately grabs your attention and you just think "Jethro Tull". Oblique, mysterious lyrics, muscular rock backing and, of course, that God-delivered flute. Great stuff. What is Anderson on about in the lyrics? Who knows, but it sounds portentous and deeply meaningful, as Tull always did.
Time for more vaguely Celtic-style acoustic folk now in the melodic and appealing Sad City Sisters. It ends a bit abruptly however. The oddly-titled Barren Beth, Wild Desert John is a return to thumping Tull-rock, a song that alternates between quiet wistful passages and huge drum, guitar and flute heavy rock-outs. It's another one that gets my seal of approval. Tull's music always was unique, and a song like this represents their sound so well. The same could easily be said of the wonderful The Betrayal Of Joshua Knyde (whoever he was), once more it is archetypal Tull, albeit with huge hints of later-era Steeleye Span in the instrumentation.
The winsome Where Did Saturday Go? harks back to the Too Young To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die album from 1976. Lyrically it puts me in mind of David Bowie's "where the fuck did Monday go?" line from Girl Loves Me on his valedictory Blackstar album. I had to get Bowie in there somehow, didn't I ? Actually when Anderson sings, "empty beds and empty places" he actually sounds a bit like Bowie.
Three Loves, Three is a bucolic piece of Tull folk that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Songs From The Wood. "Who does this remind me of?", I keep thinking to myself. Got it. Jethro Tull. No, hold on - it's Cat Stevens - in the aggressive acoustic strums and strident vocal enunciation. In Brief Visitation is similarly airy and folky while The Fisherman Of Ephesus mixes folk and rock perfectly, something Tull were always able to do.
"Comeback" albums do not always deliver, do they, but this is definitely one that does.
