Jethro Tull

(This article’s English version was produced with AI-assisted translation)

In the end, the piper of Dunfermline, unlike the one from Hamelin, did not lead everyone into the river, though none of the original Jethro Tull lineup remains, and the current formation feels more like his backing band than a true group. But the almost-octogenarian Ian Anderson doesn’t seem to mind at all. Jethro Tull is him—and, not insignificantly, that weighty baggage of formidable songs he carries with him. Thus, even the most recent tours, during which the Scottish singer’s vocal cords have seemed rather fatigued, haven’t dampened the enthusiasm of fans who have followed them for more than half a century.

"Curious Ruminant" is Jethro Tull’s twenty-fourth studio album and marks yet another chapter in the British band’s prolific recent output, which has already brought The Zealot Gene in 2022 and RökFlöte in 2023. On this occasion, Anderson is joined by keyboardist Andrew Giddings and drummer James Duncan, Anderson’s own son, along with David Goodier, John O’Hara, Scott Hammond, and new guitarist Jack Clark. The album, composed of nine tracks with durations ranging from two and a half minutes to nearly seventeen minutes, reaffirms the singer-songwriter identity of Anderson’s recent projects—Anderson being the author of all the tracks—with his legendary flute taking center stage.

After the gentle introduction of the opening "Puppet And The Puppet Master", a folk nursery rhyme sculpted by the flute with a seventies-style organ as a backdrop, a strong injection of electric guitar fuels the title track, which was released as a single ahead of the album. It pairs with a solid rhythm section and Anderson’s usual intricate flute flourishes, though it fails to carve out a particularly impactful melodic path.

The band's primordial folk imprint—decidedly more dominant on this record compared to the prog direction they embarked on in the ’70s—emerges in the acoustic crescendo of the bucolic "Dunsinane Hill", which combines accordion and flute with Anderson’s warm delivery. He sounds much more comfortable in the studio than he does live these days, though he clings to simple vocal lines, all within a mid-to-low register.

This attempt to return to their roots continues in well-crafted folk-rock hybrids ("The Tipu House", "Savannah Of Paddington Green", "Stygian Hand") that retreat into introspection and pastoral serenity. The rock grandeur of the band behind Aqualung and Thick As A Brick only resurfaces sporadically, in the sharp-edged riffs of the tense "Over Jerusalem" and—most notably—in the album’s true tour de force: the seventeen-minute "Drink From The Same Well". This shape-shifting suite—though, to be fair, a bit anonymous—begins with an elegiac flute intro before making way for expansive rhythmic and instrumental passages in classic Tull fashion, culminating in Anderson’s vocals as he unfolds another of his dark fables, conjuring a "crowd of priestly spirits adrift on blood-red sands."

Nothing groundbreaking, of course—but it would be absurd to expect that. In its artisanal simplicity, Curious Ruminant reminds us that Jethro Tull was (also) a great folk band, retreating into the acoustic atmospheres of those precious late-’60s/early-’70s beginnings, at the dawn of the prog era that Anderson and company would later embrace with enthusiasm, becoming its undisputed protagonists. All in all, a wise choice—to avoid the fate of certain aging rockers who have become somewhat pathetic. Too old to rock ’n’ roll: too young to die!

08/03/2025