Remastered edition of this 1989 album. Following the success of Crest Of A Knave, which won a Grammy in the hard-rock category, group leader Ian Anderson responded two years later with Rock Island, a record that re-imagined Jethro Tull as a modern-rock act. Features ”Another Christmas Song”, ”Rattlesnake Trail” and more.
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I remember hearing Kissing Willie on the radio a week or so before the album was released and it sounded to me like the Jethro Tull of yore returned with guitars and flute to the fore. Yes the lyrics are a bit obvious but it’s a good sexual romp through a rocking tune, and while the record does rock more than is usual for the Tull, (even the mandolins occasionally sound almost heavy metal!) it does so through a landscape of interesting lyrics that range from the sexual to the political, the introspective to the observational, even taking a side trip on a sleigh to the seasonal. Musically it has moments that are both straight forward rock to more complex rocking arrangements. I think Kissing Willie, Ears of Tin, Rock Island, Another Christmas Song, The Whaler’s Dues, Big Riff and Mando and Strange Avenues are the standout tracks. However they are standout tracks that stand out in a bunch of great songs that all stand up to shake their collective behinds in a very dramatic and boisterous manner.
The bonus tracks are from the Zurich dressing room tapes. While they have appeared elsewhere they’re always good to hear, and they do help to bring the listener down a little more gently and less abruptly than the original release did.
The sound quality on this remaster is a great improvement over the original release of Rock Island. All of the instruments shine through clearly now and the sound is completely lifted up out of the muddier waters it used to lay in.
I have no idea if any of todays’ folk metal musicians ever listered to Jethro Tull, but these guys have been mixing hard rock/metal with British traditional music since the early 70’s. This brew has given Tull a certain recognizable sound which has defined them throughout their career even though they have incorporated a wide variety of influences over the years. Rock island has a hard edge to it which tilts it more toward metal than some of Tulls’ earlier work but Ian Andrerson’s flute and melodic sensabilities still make it classic Tull. I believe that Tull fans who liked Aquqlung as well as On the Crest of a Knave will enjoy this release. I also think that fans of folk metal will like this album since Jethro Tull were a folk metal band long before the term for the genre was coined.