Jethro Tull - Broadsword or Under Wraps or Knave or Rock Island or Catfish or Roots

Last bump!

 

Final bump

 

Broadsword

 

Rock Island, IMHO; it's pretty close to being a masterpiece, if you take a couple of fillers out, Kissing Willie is stupid, and the two songs with Ian on drums (on drum machine, I should say...)

Broadsword and the Beast is also awesome, and Ian still had all his voice then, it sounds pretty wonderful, and better recorded and produced; you can hear Peggy's bass!! All the albums Ian recorded and produced at his home studio have the bass turned down so low you almost wonder if it's there at all!

 

Under Wraps by far my favourite from this era. The production may be dated but musically it's incredibly strong, great lyrics and wonderfully evocative of its era. Lap Of Luxury is the weakest thing on there, so many other highlights. Chronologically speaking, after Stormwatch this is only album which I listen to with any regularity.

Don't actively dislike any of the others particularly (with possible exception of Crest of Knave which is 2nd rate Dire Straits other than Budapest) and I'd probably put Secret Language of Birds next on my list of go to 'Tull' albums of the last 30 years. But yes Under Wraps is genius and I think it will get rehabilitated at some point as an electro classic.

 

Broadsword..not to keen on the production.

 

CREST OF A KNAVE for me ...

 

Try listening to the song "Mountain Men" on Crest again which I think is Ian's last hurrah as a pleasant sounding singer. I don't know if that song was recorded earlier than others on Crest, but his voice is noticably stronger and would not be matched again by Ian unfortunately.


Also, I think 'Rocks on The Road' is fantastic on Catfish, but even better live on "A Little Light Music". A real late Tull classic.

 

I had a "modern era'" love fest of Jethro Tull back in the late 80's/early 90's.
Crest Of A Knave, Rock Island & Catfish Rising were all enjoyable albums for me; but I started losing interest with the exotic scales of Roots To Branches...

 

I prefer Broadsword and Rock Island....

 

Broadsword

Though of the others i've
only heard UW , am i disqualified ?

why not make these proper polls ?

 

Do agree that those songs work better in a live context. Budapest and Rocks are both significantly improved live (and I'm one of those people who think they still cut it live as a band despite shortcomings). Will go back to Mountain Men though, definitely.

 

None of them, ugh! And I've heard them all several times

 

This one for me by far........

 

While I totally disagree, I kept waiting for Tull to play "Kissing Willie" during the Clinton scandal, but he never succumed to the temptation. Tull does have an instrumental called "Boris Dancing" in honor of former Russian president Boris Yeltson, based on an on camera drunken dance he performed.

 

Broadsword fans check this out:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=6559550&postcount=971

The Broadsword remaster's bonus tracks make this a masterpiece in my view. The bonus tracks plus the missing Motoreyes would have made a cool album.

 

For me, it is Crest, followed by Under Wraps. In both cases, my favorite tracks are CD-only "bonuses": "The Waking Edge" (the only Tull song whose lyrics actually used to bring me to tears) on the former, and "General Crossing" on the latter. I agree with the previous posters that those who dismiss Crest may be forgetting about the magisterial "Mountain Men," and that some fans may have been so turned off by the programming on UW that they didn't really let the above-average songwriting sink in. I believe Martin Barre has called UW of his favorite Tull albums, but I don't have a link to prove it.

 

Martin & Ian both enjoy Under Wraps. Me too.

Prefer the West German CD to the remaster. Remaster bass is over the top.

 

Easily Broadsword. But, who knows, perhaps the later albums will grow on me as Stormwatch and Broadsword have. As of now, I only enjoy a select few from albums post Broadsword and could probably pull together only one solid album's worth of material (excepting the very well done Christmas Album).

 

Crest and Broadsword for me. Both are great, but patchy. Rock and Catfish were real let-downs for me after Crest; both way too weak on killer tracks with too much filler. Roots was a real awesome surprise return to form, and for me, the last 'great' Tull album. Dot.com? no thanks... a real stinker to end on... Always hated Wraps and Light.... and A too.

Last truely essential Tull Lp? Songs from the Wood, 1977.

 

Tsk tsk Mr. Bill, we've been down this trodden path before. May the iron-clad feather-feet pound you to dust for such a comment!

 

Can anyone comment on any sonic differences between the 1991 and 2005 (remaster) CD versions of Catfish Rising? I ask since the 'loudness database' shows the 1991 version to be more dynamic. The 2005 has bonus tracks that I'd be interested in. Thanks all in advance!

 

I am one of the few people in the universe who loves Rock Island. Just saying. It's not my choice from this list, that would be Broadsword, but I find it a great listen and love most of the songs. (My favourite from this era would be a live album, the amazing "A Little Light Music"; THAT ONE'S AWESOME!

 

Broadsword has some fantastic songs and Ian´s voice is top notch, but watch out for Roots to bransches. A few of the songs are overlong (first verse repeated, but it was a welocme comeback to a more proggy style after a few years with a little too much Dire straits/ZZ-top hybrid music (That said; "Budapest" and "farm on the freeway" from Crest are 5-star songs, and so are "Rocks on the road" from Catfish. Take a listen to the title track from RTB:

 

Broadsword and Knave are both great albums, and Under Wraps - though much maligned at the time - definitely has its moments.

The other three? Meh.