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No matter Ian Anderson is sprinkling on his porridge is working. Curious Ruminant is the third Jethro Tull album since he resurrected the title for 2022’s The Zealot Gene. Calling that album and its follow-up, 2023’s RökFlöte, a late-career sizzling streak appears slightly unbecoming for a somebody as donnish as Anderson, however it advised there was a renewed vigour or underlying urgency to the 70-something frontman. Or possibly each.
That vigour is clear on the newest launch, one other nice album from a band within the autumn of their profession. Its two predecessors offered a comparatively powerful model of Tull, with some outstanding guitar lending them a contemporary edge. However Curious Ruminant heads off down a special path.
The guitars are nonetheless right here, courtesy of recent member Jack Clark, who dances round Anderson’s vibrant, vivid flute enjoying on Puppet And The Puppet Grasp and provides each color and two spectacular solos to the vivid title monitor.
However elsewhere, higher area is afforded to the accordion, offered by keyboard participant/multi-instrumentalist John O’Hara. He weaves out and in of The Tipu Home and the Macbeth-referencing Dunsinane Hill, and lends a Celtic air to Savannah Of Paddington Inexperienced, the latter discovering Anderson addressing city progress, local weather change and the passage of human time. It lends Curious Ruminant the identical rustic really feel as Songs From The Wooden or Heavy Horses – not a religious successor, however actually reduce from the identical woad-dyed tunic.
Disappointingly, the abum title isn’t a sly synonym for ‘Nosy Cow’
In fact, any Tull album is a benevolent dictatorship with Anderson as President For Life, and it’s his voice, flute and phrases that outline the band. What the previous lacks within the acrobatic theatricality of previous, his phrases make up for in vividness.
Disappointingly, the abum title isn’t a sly synonym for ‘Nosy Cow’ – the ruminations of the title are extra meditative. Over Jerusalem is a major instance: a twisting drone’s eye view of the traditional metropolis that expresses each love for the area and unhappiness at its present state of affairs.
The only real disappointment right here is penultimate monitor Drink From The Similar Nicely. At 16 minutes, it’s the longest Tull tune because the mid-70s; however there are few twists, turns or surprises to justify its working time. Anderson conceived it years in the past as a collaboration with Indian bamboo flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia, and it nonetheless bears the whiff of recent age meditation retreats.
Fortunately it’s adopted by Interim Sleep, a genuinely shifting spoken-word piece that finds the singer contemplating the potential of existence and reunion after a bereavement. Autobiographical? He says not, however it reaffirms that sense of urgency that surrounds each the person and his band.
Curious Ruminant is on sale now by way of InsideOut.