Search - Jethro Tull :: Aqualung (25th Anniversary Special Edition)

Now Ian Anderson wants us to think!

Ilya Malafeyev | Russia | 02/09/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"That's what one of the popular music mags wrote back in 1971, and they were quite right. "Aqualung" was the first Tull album to present lyrics with Anderson's personal thoughts on serious sides of life. Often mistaken for a concept album, "Aqualung" isn't one, but a collection of strong songs, that each speaks its own. I'll write about it later, and want to speak about musicianship first. Clearly, Tull members are showing impressive growth. Particularly, it's Martin Barre's now established guitar playing, and Ian Anderson's confidence with acoustic arrangements and more freedom with his flute. 2 guitars and an omnipresent flute is what constitutes the sound of this record. Anderson also grew as a singer, and his passionate performance is definitely the band's highlight.



The songs here fall into one of the 2 categories, either carefully composed mellow acoustic tracks with an obvious folksy influence, or strong rocking compositions with lots of electric guitars, with neither pattern dominating, and both sounding strong and impressive throughout. Overall the album's sound is somewhat cold.



The title track starts out with a heavy guitar riff, and alternates heavy and soft styles for its duration. On the contrary, "Cross Eyed Mary" is not so hard hitting, though with electric guitars, and gives flute much playing time. Both songs depict members of the lower class, a bum and a teenage prostitute, with brilliant lyrics expressing cold observation, slight sympathy, and a little of surprising irony, all at once.

"Cheap Day Return" is a beautiful short acoustic number, telling about Ian's thought on his way back from visiting his dad at the hospital. In one of the interviews Ian said that this song originally covered the entire trip from London to the hospital and back, but it ended up being so long, that, on second thought, Anderson cut it to just 1:23 length. I guess that's a typical display of Ian's sence of humour.

"Mother Goose" is a strange song with nonsense lyrics. It bears lots of English folk influence, and is one of the stronger numbers here.

"Wond'ring Aloud" is one of Anderson's most personal and beautiful love songs. As he himself said, it's difficult to write a love song without falling into some kind of a cliche. Well, he managed to make an absolutely original one, and an excellent one, too! There's some orchestration here, perhaps, a taste of things to come for the "War Child" album.

"Up To Me", another half-nonsense ironic song, tells about a typical day of a low-class member, probably a low paid worker. Absolutely chilling flute here! This one is an acoustic track, but it shows some edge towards the end. Definite highlight!

"My God" opens up the second half of the album, subtitled the same. It was originally meant to be the title of the album, but the idea was scrapped after a similarly titled bootleg record appeared not long before "Aqualang" release date. This is one of Tull's most famous songs. It's message is aimed against organized religion, and how it twists the concept of God to justify puruing of its own interests. With a very complex instrumentation, this song is definitely the album's culminating point, and one of rock music classic numbers.

"Hymn 43" develops the same message, this time with a hard accompanement with a dominating electric guitar and a piano. "Jesus saves, but he better save himself // From gory glory seekers who use his name in death", the part of the lyrics that perfectly sums it all up.

"Slipstream" is yet one more short acoustic song telling about aimlessness of the man's way of life.

"Locomotive Breath" is perhaps the best known song from this album, being a hit-single. It has the most listener-friendly music (especially the rhythm pattern), but it's not a pop tune. It's a very strong composition with an instantly recognized piano part.

"Wind Up" literally winds up this album on a strong note. It's another message sending anthem about how younger people shouldn't blindly accept the religious beliefs of their parents, but instead must investigate the concept of God on their own, and accept the only personal belief that they feel is right. "I don't believe you, you have the whole damn thing all wrong! He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays" sings Ian in closing parts of this brilliant album that I'll safely put among the Top-10 records of 70's rock music. Nothing could be added to this statement of personal rebellion. Buy the album and hear it yourself.



This jubileum edition has some bonus tracks. "Lick Your Fingers Clean" is a working version of a song that found its way into "War Child". "Wind Up" is some fancy remastered version of the same song off this album, which I don't find particularly good. The closing three tracks are most probably a recording of the band playing for some radio-show, for Alexis Corner, maybe? And there's also a lengthy interview by Ian Anderson about this album and that whole era in music. A nice one, but it would be better to make it a final track, for obvious reasons. The bonus-tracks a re a nice addition to the overall value, but the value of the original album is a thousand times bigger, so one should buy "Aqualung" not for the bonuses, but for exceptionally good quality of music."

One of the All-Time Classics

Steven R. Seim | Beaver Dam, WI United States | 07/17/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Aqualung" is, quite simply, Jethro Tull's masterpiece. The combination of hard-driving jazz-rock ("Hymn 43," "Locomotive Breath," and the title track are classics) with stately British folk-rock makes for a very rewarding listen. Ian Anderson & Co. were one of the most distinctive sounds on the British scene, and "Aqualung" is, for all intents and purposes, their "greatest hits" and "best of" in one compact studio release. The lyrics may have been pretentious, but the music is just plain great."