Jethro Tule

Stormwatch is the twelfth studio album by the progressive rock group Jethro Tull, released September 1979. It is considered the last in the trilogy of folk-rock albums by Jethro Tull (although folk music influenced virtually every Tull album to some extent.). Among other subject-matters, the album touches heavily on the problems relating to the environment, oil and money. Stormwatch was notably the last Tull album to feature the "classic" line-up of the 1970s, as drummer Barriemore Barlow and keyboardists John Evan and David Palmer left the band the following year after the end of the Stormwatch tour, while bassist John Glascock died from heart complications during the tour.

Jethro Tull's second album-length composition, A Passion Play is very different from – and not quite as successful as – Thick as a Brick. Ian Anderson utilizes reams of biblical (and biblical-sounding) references, interwoven with modern language, as a sort of a rock equivalent to T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland. As with most progressive rock, the words seem important and profound, but their meaning is anyone's guess ("The ice-cream lady wet her drawers, to see you in the Passion Play…"), with Anderson as a dour but engaging singer/sage (who, at least at one point, seems to take on the role of a fallen angel). It helps to be aware of the framing story, about a newly deceased man called to review his life at the portals of heaven, who realizes that life on Earth is preferable to eternity in paradise.

A unique phenomenon in popular music history, Jethro Tull have been and still are one of the most successful live performing acts on the world stage, rivaling Led Zeppelin, Elton John and even the Rolling Stones. After forty years at the bottom, at the top and various points in between, with now some 30-odd albums to their credit and sales totaling more than 50 million, Jethro Tull are still performing typically more than a hundred concerts each year. This concert recorded in 2008 is one of their best.

Under Wraps is the 15th studio album by the band Jethro Tull, released in 1984. The songs' subject matter is heavily influenced by bandleader Ian Anderson's love of espionage fiction. It was controversial among fans of the band due to its electronic/synthesizer-based sound, particularly the use of electronic drums. Dave Pegg has been quoted as saying that the tracks cut from the sessions for Broadsword and the Beast would have made a better album, while Martin Barre has referred to it as one of his personal favourite Tull albums. The album reached No. 76 on the Billboard 200 and No. 18 on the UK charts. The single "Lap of Luxury" reached No. 30.

Minstrel in the Gallery was Tull's most artistically successful and elaborately produced album since Thick as a Brick and harkened back to that album with the inclusion of a 17-minute extended piece ("Baker Street Muse"). Although English folk elements abound, this is really a hard rock showcase on a par with – and perhaps even more aggressive than – anything on Aqualung. The title track is a superb showcase for the group, freely mixing folk melodies, lilting flute passages, and archaic, pre-Elizabethan feel, and the fiercest electric rock in the group's history – parts of it do recall phrases from A Passion Play, but all of it is more successful than anything on War Child.

Each era of rock music has had its own craftily marketed phenomenon – it was the "live album" in the '70s, "unplugged" recordings in the '90s, and since the late '80s through the present day, the "tribute album." But the early 21st century saw another addition – veteran bands revisiting classic albums and performing them in their entirety. Jethro Tull's most enduring release is largely agreed to be 1971's classic Aqualung, and in late 2004 Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, and their latest Tull mates dusted off the album once more in front of a small audience for XM Radio's Then Again Live series. Since 33 years had passed between the original and the re-reading, the performances on Aqualung Live are slightly more restrained.

Ian Anderson has released several solo albums in the past 19 years. However, with The Zealot Gene being the first album by Jethro Tull in almost two decades, expectations are high….

Minstrel in the Gallery was Tull's most artistically successful and elaborately produced album since Thick as a Brick and harkened back to that album with the inclusion of a 17-minute extended piece ("Baker Street Muse"). Although English folk elements abound, this is really a hard rock showcase on a par with – and perhaps even more aggressive than – anything on Aqualung. The title track is a superb showcase for the group, freely mixing folk melodies, lilting flute passages, and archaic, pre-Elizabethan feel, and the fiercest electric rock in the group's history – parts of it do recall phrases from A Passion Play, but all of it is more successful than anything on War Child.

After the '70s, Jethro Tull struggled with each album to update their sound, but kept falling short with out-of-place synthesizers and drum machines. Three attempts at harder-rocking albums were followed by the Little Light Music tour in 1992, one which took a step back into a relaxing semi-acoustic setting. This album, a document of that May's European shows, should be treasured by fans looking for something more than the 10,000th performance of "Aqualung" (although it does contain the 10,001st performance of "Locomotive Breath"). The playing highlights the gentlest musical abilities of Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, bassist/mandolinist Dave Pegg, and temporary drummer Dave Mattacks (Pegg's Fairport Convention buddy). Old favorites are rearranged alongside rarely performed tunes from the Tull catalog.