JETHRO TULL

Ian Anderson talks about the band's latest album Curious Ruminant, and says he's more likely to get the itch to make more records than to get the itch to retire.

- Words: James McNair

After 24 studio albums and almost 60 years with Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson's legacy looks safe even before you factor in his not inconsiderable solo output. Tull's latest album, Curious Ruminant, fulfils the contractual stipulations of their three-album deal with German prog label InsideOutMusic. But, unlike 2022's The Zealot Gene and 2023's RökFlöte, it's not a concept album, and feels weightier, closer to home. “This is a record where you'll see the words 'I' and 'me' more often than is usual in Jethro Tull lyrics,” Anderson confirms. “It's not entirely introspective, but it is a more personal set of views, observations and feelings about various topics. I wanted to be a little more heart-on-sleeve.”

Those “various topics” include songs about audience and performer, about bereavement and avarice and betrayal. Curious Ruminant is rather special; a welcome return to the folky, yet heavy Tull sound that many of us first fell for back in the 70s.

Does Anderson see the record as a milestone, too?

“Not really,” he says levelly. “It’s just a collection of songs, in the same way that Aqualung was a collection of songs.”

No fanfare, then, and no histrionics. Anderson is too long in the tooth for gushing self-promotion, even when he’s arguably made his best record in some time. Dressed in a countryman's padded black gilet over a grey sweatshirt, he exudes pragmatism instead. Deadlines get met, boxes get ticked, and if you happen to like his latest album, that’s good, too.

Although both Curious Ruminant's opening song Puppet And The Puppet Master and the title track begins with a few seconds of melancholic piano, the album as a whole is a shape-shifting, folk rock tour de force. Its heavier elements are part-fired by the fine guitar work of relative newcomer Jack Clark, more of whom shortly. The prognoscenti will also doubtless salivate at the shifting moods and gears of