Jethro Tull Album Reviews

Ian Anderson, Jeffrey Hammond, and John Evan attended grammar school together in Blackpool, England. Together with drummer Barrie Barlow, they formed a six-piece “blue-eyed soul” group called the John Evan Band. Evans, Hammond, and Barlow all left the group, but would all rejoin Anderson in the 1970s lineup.

Anderson linked up with guitarist Mick Abrahams. They went through many names, as they found it hard to secure repeat bookings. Jethro Tull, named for an 18th-century agriculturalist who invented the seed drill, was supplied by a booking agent, and stuck after they secured a weekly residency.

I was a little embarrassed a few weeks later when I realised this wasn’t an original name, but the name of a historical character. It’s a bit like being called Genghis Khan or Robin Hood or Adolph Hitler or something. If there is one thing in my life, I would go back and change the name of Jethro Tull to something less historical.

Ian Anderson, Austin Daze

Jethro Tull went through many lineups and styles, with Anderson the only constant member. They’re loved for their progressive rock albums in the early 1970s, Thick as a Brick and Aqualung. I find them less consistent than contemporaries like Yes and Genesis, but their best work is very strong.

Jethro Tull Album Reviews

This Was

1968, 6.5/10
Jethro Tull’s debut album is markedly different from their later work. With guitarist Mick Abrahams, they’re blues-oriented, more like contemporaries of Cream. Abrahams has some cowriting credits (rare for Tull), and sings lead on ‘Move On Alone’.

This Was is a respectable debut, and Anderson has enough charisma to make their blues songs work, but the songs are less interesting than their subsequent work. Anderson’s vocals and flute are the band’s most distinctive aspect – by the time they recorded Thick as a Brick, three-and-a-half years later, Anderson was the only original member still in the band.

The best material is stacked on the first side. ‘Beggar’s Farm’ is my favourite here, finding an interesting midpoint between jazz and blues, and letting some personality shine through. The jazzy touch also works on ‘Serenade to a Cuckoo’. The opening ‘My Sunday Feeling’ works well too, with a straightahead blues-rock sound.

In hindsight, This Was feels like a dead end for Tull, and they’d improve markedly with a few changes.

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Stand Up

1969, 8/10
When Anderson started writing for Tull’s second album, his songs weren’t as bluesy as before. Abrahams, a blues purist, quit the band to form Blodwyn Pig. He was briefly replaced by Tommy Iommi, who decided he didn’t fit and left to form Black Sabbath. Martin Barre became the band’s guitarist and Anderson’s longest-serving sidekick, staying into the 21st century. He’s a much better fit, able to deftly play Anderson’s sophisticated compositions.

The band worked with Andy Johns, and Stand Up is more studio-based than This Was. There are still traces of blues, but the folk of Roy Harper and Bert Jansch also influenced Anderson. Stand Up topped the UK albums chart, helped by the success of the non-album single ‘Living in the Past’.

The best tracks are those in which the band displays its increasing sophistication. There’s a great blues-tinged opener for each side – ‘A New Day Yesterday’ and ‘Nothing Is Easy’ – while they tackle J.S. Bach on ‘Bouree’. The gently psychedelic ‘Look Into The Sun’ is another highlight.

Stand Up was an important sophomore album for Jethro Tull, establishing them as more than a second-rate blues-rock band.

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Benefit

1970, 7/10
Stand Up was constructed in the studio. Jethro Tull recorded Benefit with a live feel, and Ian Anderson noted that “I don’t think it has the breadth, variety or detail that Stand Up has.” Keyboardist John Evans plays on Benefit, although he’s not yet an official member. Benefit is solid, but the songs aren’t quite tough enough to be hard rock, and the melodies aren’t memorable enough to stand as good pop songs.

Jethro Tull were releasing their most accessible songs as standalone singles, like ‘Sweet Dream’ and ‘The Witch’s Promise’. What’s left is dark and insular, reflecting Anderson’s frustrations at a long US tour and the machinations of the music industry. The best tracks are the lengthy blues-rock excursions, like ‘To Cry You A Song’ and ‘With You There To Help Me’, but they’re not generally Tull’s strength.

Benefit is workmanlike, but it feels more like a transition than a solid work in its own right.

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Aqualung

1971, 8.5/10
The eccentricities of Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond already inspired several Jethro Tull songs before he joined the band in 1971, while John Evans also became a full-time member of the group. Aqualung was one of the first albums recorded at Island Records’ new studios, at the same time as Led Zeppelin IV.

It was easily the group’s most accomplished album yet. They’re no longer putting their best tracks on non-album singles. The album’s split between electric riff rockers and pretty acoustic folk songs, playing to their strengths. Anderson rejected suggestions that Aqualung is a concept album, but there are clear thematic threads with critiques of urbanisation and organised religion.

The rockers are stronger than before – ‘Hymn 43’ has a terrific propulsive riff, while ‘Cross-Eyed Mary’ bristles with hooks. The acoustic tracks aren’t quite as strong, but they provide balance, with brief, pretty songs like ‘Wond’ring Aloud’ and ‘Slipstream’.

Aqualung is excellent, and their next album would be even stronger.

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Thick as a Brick

1972, 10/10
Anderson was upset that Aqualung was labelled as a concept album. In retaliation, he planned “the mother of all concept albums”, a parody of Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The lyrics of Thick as a Brick were attributed to a schoolboy named Gerald Bostock. The album is presented in a newspaper-style package, focused on Bostock’s disqualification from a poetry contest.

Even though it’s one long song, separated only by the limitations of a twenty-minute LP side, Thick as a Brick is one of Tull’s most accessible pieces, tuneful and divided into short chunks. Intended as parody, the lighter touch is appreciated – sometimes Anderson can be too po-faced for his own good.

Anderson uses Bostock’s persona to explore his own childhood experiences. In some of the most memorable passages, he invokes his childhood heroes like Robin Hood and Biggles. The second half is a little bit weaker, with more instrumentals and less incisive lyrics, but ‘Thick as a Brick’ is still my favourite Tull song.

It started as a parody, but Thick as a Brick ended up as a definitive concept album.

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Living in the Past

1972, 8/10
Tull’s first three albums were worthy, but perhaps a little light on great singles. But in British tradition, they were saving much of their best material for non-album singles. ‘Living in the Past’, ‘Witches Promise’, ‘Life is a Long Song’ and ‘Teacher’ are all among their best early work, only turning up on singles.

At the same time, the double-album format, with previously released album tracks and lengthy live tracks, is messy. A single-disc version with their non-album material would be one of their strongest records. Weirdly, my CD version omits ‘Teacher’ in favour of tracks already included on their studio albums.

Progressive rock and singles aren’t usually mentioned in the same sentence, but Tull are a notable exception.

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A Passion Play

1973, 8/10
Tull followed the prog parody of Thick as a Brick with the serious progressive rock of A Passion Play. It’s another single-track album, but it’s different in tone. It chronicles the journey of a deceased man in the afterlife, and it’s devoid of humour, apart from ‘The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles’ interlude. Alongside the more serious lyrics, Evans often plays synths, while Anderson quickly learned the saxophone for this record.

A Passion Play topped the charts in the US, but it was panned by critics.It’s a dense album that requires a lot of effort – fortunately, I bought it in my youth when I had the time to absorb it properly.

It’s weaker than Thick as a Brick, but features some great moments. The strongest parts are towards the end as it picks up in intensity. The folk-rocking Barre riff that kicks in with five minutes to go is terrific, as is Anderson’s vocal melody when he sings “Hail! Son of Kings”.

A Passion Play is Tull’s most polarising record, but I think it’s one of their most rewarding.

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War Child

1974, 7/10
Jethro Tull held press conferences to stave off the furore surrounding A Passion Play and to explain their future plans. They took 18 months to release War Child, and it’s underwhelming. After a series of laser-focused albums, War Child just feels like a collection of songs from a band unsure where to explore next. Several songs were leftovers from the Passion Play sessions.

There’s a grab bag of material. The single ‘Bungle in the Jungle’ is unusually lighthearted, a remnant of an album threatening to “explor[e] people, the human condition, through analogies with the animal kingdom.” My favourite is ‘The Third Hoorah’, a folk-rock reprise of the title track that points the way forward to Songs from the Wood. ‘Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day’ is a pretty and acoustic, later claimed by Anderson as the first climate change song.

War Child is an inconsistent grab-bag, but it’s worth hearing the highlights.

10 Best Jethro Tull Songs

• Thick as a Brick
• Hymn 43
• Nothing Is Easy
• Cross-Eyed Mary
• Witches Promise
• A Passion Play.