Review: Jethro Tull – Roots To Branches (1995)

Roots To Branches is Jethro Tull’s 19th studio album.

As we have often noted before, the 1980s were a difficult time for many musicians. However, several of the biggest prog bands did surprisingly well commercially during the neon-colored decade. Pink Floyd managed to maintain its position as one of the world’s biggest bands, and Genesis was able to make the leap to roughly the same league with its pop-oriented albums. Even the ultra-progressive Yes managed to strike gold, and 90125 became the band’s most successful album, driven by the hit ”Owner Of A Lonely Heart.” Mike Oldfield, who had previously made a name for himself with instrumental spectacles that were mostly half an album long, also successfully switched to pop, at least for a while; ”Moonlight Shadow” was the most successful single in Europe in 1983.

In the 1970s, Jethro Tull was one of the world’s biggest bands, especially in terms of touring success, and for a long time they were a step ahead of Yes and especially Genesis in terms of record sales. However, unlike these bands, Jethro Tull did not manage to maintain its place in the commercial A-group at the beginning of the 1980s. And it wasn’t for lack of trying! Anderson was just as willing to compromise on his music as the aforementioned successful bands.

Led by Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull’s 1980s were a period of relatively awkward artistic and commercial floundering following the relatively successful album A (1980). The Broadsword And The Beast and, in particular, Under Wraps, which took an awkward leap into synthpop and was described by the head of Chrysalis Records as ”a pile of shit,” were artistically far removed from the band’s 1970s gems and sold poorly.

Released in 1987, Crest Of A Knave is not a very good album in my opinion, but it can be considered the band’s highlight of the 1980s. At least commercially. Quality-wise uneven, Crest Of A Knave mixed Tull’s own style with influences from Dire Straits and even ZZ Top, and sold relatively well. The album sold over half a million copies, which is significantly more than any other album by the band in the same decade. Jethro Tull also controversially and memorably won the Grammy Award* for Best Heavy Metal Album, even though everyone had expected Metallica to win.

Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental was the actual name of the category.

However, Jethro Tull was unable to achieve lasting success. Rock Island, released in 1989, and Catfish Rising, released two years later, continued in much the same vein as Crest Of A Knave, combining blues, hard rock, and AOR in an increasingly tired manner. Both albums can easily be classified as the least significant releases in the band’s long history. They also sold poorly.

Read also: Review: Marillion – Afraid Of Sunlight (1995)

After several albums stuck in the same rut, Anderson finally found a new gear with Roots To Branches. Adult rock and blues are mostly left behind, replaced by the more powerful twists and turns of progressive rock, but more significantly, clear influences from ethnic music.

Ethnic influences were strongly present in Anderson’s work at this time, as his solo album Divinities: Twelve Dances With God, released just a few months before Roots To Branches, drew on different ethnic music traditions in each track. On Roots To Branches, the influences of Arabic music and, in particular, Indian music come to the fore.

Anderson was apparently traveling in India around this time, and these experiences are reflected here and there in the lyrics on the album. In ”Beside My Self,” Anderson mourns the fate of child prostitutes on the streets of Mumbai (still called Bombay when the album was released) in a touching but unsentimental way, while ”Out Of The Noise” seems to refer more generally to the chaos of local megacities. The influences in the music can be heard in exotic scales, a new kind of rhythmic energy, and the occasional use of ethnic instruments such as bamboo flutes and African drums.

Anderson’s new vision is realized by longtime guitarist Martin Barre and drummer Doane Perry, who has been with the band since 1984 and, in my opinion, does his best work on Roots To Branches. Bassist Dave Pegg, who joined Jethro Tull in 1980, only managed to play on three tracks on the album due to his busy schedule with Fairport Convention. The rest of the bass tracks are played by American jazz-rock virtuoso Steve Bailey, who plays a fretless bass. Roots To Branches was Pegg’s last album with Jethro Tull, as he was not enthusiastic about the band’s artistic direction or the fact that Anderson, who was suffering from vocal problems, played too many concerts without regard for quality. The lineup is completed by Andrew Giddings, who already appeared on Catfish Rising and played a significant role on Anderson’s Divinities album, and who is now an official member of the band. Giddings’ synthesizers bring a relatively successful pseudo-orchestral sound, even though the sounds are at times a little thin and glassy.

Anderson’s vocal cords were permanently damaged during the tour promoting Under Wraps in 1984. Anderson’s voice became hoarse and his vocal range narrowed significantly. The albums released after Under Wraps clearly suffered from this, as Anderson’s previously dynamic vocal performances became flat, reminiscent of Mark Knopfler’s spoken-word singing. In his own words, Anderson would still have been able to sing in the studio as before, but he knew that this would lead to problems when performing the same songs on tour. For some reason, however, Anderson’s narrowed vocal range on Roots To Branches does not bother me in the same way as on previous albums. I think this is mainly because the music is more complex and interesting, so the vocal melodies themselves are not as important. And Anderson compensates for his vocal shortcomings magnificently with his flute, which perhaps sounds more agile and versatile than ever on this album. I think Anderson may have been at the peak of his abilities as a flutist on Roots To Branches.

Anderson has also called Roots To Branches ”the Stand Up of the 90s” because, in his opinion, both albums combine influences from blues, classical music, and ethnic music in a versatile way and give riffing guitars and flutes a central role. However, the ethnic influences are much more pronounced on Roots To Branches than on Stand Up, and Anderson has clearly drawn inspiration from India in particular.

Anderson himself has expressed regret that the album sounds too live and leans too heavily toward the 1970s. I completely disagree. First of all, there is nothing particularly 70s about the sound of the album, and more importantly, this time the music was mainly recorded live, rather than with click tracks and sequences, which seems to have energized the whole band for the first time in a long time.

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The title track that opens the album makes it clear that there is now new enthusiasm and power in the music. The hazy beginning of the song sets a mystical mood, the bass guitar sounds menacing, and the song ultimately packs a commendable number of nice little hooks and several short solo breaks from different instruments into its five-minute duration. Anderson’s flute in particular plays with delightful agility, and Bailey’s fretless bass also sounds satisfyingly nimble, even if it is mixed a little too far into the background. ”Roots to Branches” brings progressiveness back to Jethro Tull’s rock.

Other particularly delicious tracks include ”Rare And Precious Chain,” which bursts with rhythmic energy utilizing a wide variety of percussion instruments; ”Out Of The Noise,” which is versatile, winding, and effectively rocking with its Arabic-sounding electric guitar riffs; and ”This Free Will,” which features Giddins’ synthesizer strings. The highly varied ”Valley,” with lyrics criticizing parochialism that can easily escalate into violence, inspired by the Bosnian war, is also an effective mini-epic.

It is worth noting that all of the above-mentioned songs are on the first half of the album. The first half of Roots To Branches is so strong that the second half inevitably falls a little short in comparison. The songs on the B-side are not particularly weak, but in the second half, the album first begins to repeat itself to some extent and then, in the last three songs, completely forgets the ethnic influences heard earlier on the album.

The last three tracks on the album, ”At Last, Forever,” ”Stuck in the August Rain,” and ”Another Harry’s Bar,” are like déjà vu from the blues-leaning middle-of-the-road adult rock of the two previous Jethro Tull albums. ”Another Harry’s Bar” even returns to a Dire Straits-esque mood with its spoken vocals. The return to this sector is unfortunate and surprising considering the first half of the album, but fortunately, these three songs are not bad examples of their genre. ”Another Harry’s Bar” is a tad boring, but on the other hand, its prog-like outro, built on a synthesizer ostinato with alternating guitar and flute riffs, is delightfully effective.

After a long dry spell, Roots To Branches marked Jethro Tull’s powerful return to more vibrant and progressive music. In fact, I think it’s the band’s best album since 1978’s Heavy Horses. Despite its quality, Roots To Branches didn’t sell well and, unfortunately, didn’t kick off any major artistic renaissance in the veteran band’s career.

Ian Anderson made two more Jethro Tull albums with guitarist Martin Barre (J-Tull Dot Com, 1999, and The Jethro Tull Christmas Album, 2003) After that, the 2000s were a bit of a weird time for Anderson, who couldn’t really decide whether to make solo albums under his own name or solo albums that were half-heartedly branded with the once-prestigious Jethro Tull name.

The last few decades have damaged Jethro Tull’s reputation in many ways, but this does not diminish the musical value of the band’s 1970s masterpieces such as Aqualung, Thick As A Brick, and Songs From The Woods. Roots To Branches may not quite measure up to the aforementioned classics, but it ranks among the top third of the band’s extensive catalog and also has the dubious honor of being the last truly good and innovative album released under the Jethro Tull name.

Best tracks: ”Roots To Branches”., ”Rare And Precious Chain” ja ”This Free Will”, ”Valley”, ”Dangerous Veils”

Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Read also: Review: King Crimson – THRAK (1995)

Tracks

  1. ”Roots to Branches” 5:11
  2. ”Rare and Precious Chain” 3:35
  3. ”Out of the Noise” 3:25
  4. ”This Free Will” 4:05
  5. ”Valley” 6:07
  6. ”Dangerous Veils” 5:35
  7. ”Beside Myself” 5:50
  8. ”Wounded, Old and Treacherous” 7:50
  9. ”At Last, Forever” 7:55
  10. ”Stuck in the August Rain” 4:06
  11. ”Another Harry’s Bar” 6:21

Jethro Tull:

Ian Anderson: vocals, flute, acoustic guitar Martin Barre: electric guitar Dave Pegg: bass guitar (3, 5 & 11) Andrew Giddings: keyboards Doane Perry: drums, percussion Steve Bailey: bass guitar (1, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10)

Producer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis

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