Rating "Jethro Tull " albums?

This Was 7/10
Stand Up 8.5/10
Benefit 8.5/10
Aqualung 9.5/10
Thick As A Brick 9/10
A Passion Play 9/10
Warchild 8/10
Minstrel In The Gallery 8/10
Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! 7.5/10
Songs From The Wood 8/10
Heavy Horses 8/10
Stormwatch 7.5/10
A 7/10
Broadsword and The Beast 6/10
Under Wraps 7.5/10
Crest Of A Knave 6/10
Rock Island 4/10
Catfish Rising 6.5/10
Roots To Branches 6/10
J-Tull Dot Com 5/10

 

I obtained quite a few live Tull boots and got to know their live material (and saw them a few times too), so felt I covered the Bursting Out material. But I will keep my eyes open for these, as have started to listen to Jethro again after the long break.

 

This Was is very different from everything that followed given that Anderson took the reins; Stand Up is in many ways a template for a lot of what followed; to me, Benefit is the outlier in those early albums as more hard rock and guitar-centric; Aqualung is more in the evolution of Stand Up than Benefit. I interviewed Ian Anderson recently about the early Tull and it is posted to my site, along with a separate piece about some of the pressings of these early albums. Saw them on the tour before Aqualung was released. Fabulous.
Admittedly, I haven't listened to as much of the later Tull, but they kept evolving, so in some ways, rating the body of work is like commenting on which "period" (and style) of Tull you prefer.

 

In my collection...

Stand Up 9
Benefit 8
Aqualung 10
Thick As A Brick 10
Living In The Past 8
A Passion Play 6
War Child 7
Minstrel In The Gallery 7
Songs From The Wood 9

 

Cool. Link?

 

It's TheVinylPress.com
You'll see the interview as a feature and the piece about the pressings of the early stuff as a sidebar. Within that, there is a link to a shoot-out I had done over the summer, 2015 of many Aqualung pressings. I don't take any adverts, and all opinions (other than those quoted) are my own. I do this purely as a labor of love.

 

Awesome -- your questions are quite cogent and IA's answers are on-point and articulate. Rarely see that in music interviews these days. You do good work sir!

 

This Was 6
Stand Up 10
Benefit 8
Aqualung 10
Thick As A Brick 8
Living In The Past 7
A Passion Play 2
Warchild 10
Minstrel In The Gallery 8
Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! 7
Songs From The Wood 7
Heavy Horses 10
Stormwatch 7
`A' 4
Broadsword and The Beast 6
Under Wraps 1
Crest Of A Knave 7
Rock Island 5
Catfish Rising 5
Roots To Branches 5
J-Tull Dot Com 5

 

Aqualung
Stand Up
Minstrel In The Gallery
This Was
Benefit
Thick As A Brick
Too Old To Rock
Crest of A Knave
Songs From The Wood
War Child

 

Out of the ones I have heard.

Aqualung 8
A Passion Play 6
Minstrel In The Gallery 8
Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young To Die 7
Songs From The Wood 10
Heavy Horses 9
A 7

 

This Was 7
Stand Up 10
Benefit 10
Aqualung 10
Thick As A Brick 10
Living In The Past 9
A Passion Play 9
WarChild 9
Minstrel In The Gallery 10
Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young To Die 6
Songs From The Wood 10
Heavy Horses 7
Stormwatch 7
A 6
The Broadsword And The Beast 8
Under Wraps 7
Crest Of A Knave 8
Rock Island 9 (I really like this album)
Catfish Rising 7
Roots To Branches 6
A Christmas Album 8

 

1. Minstrel in the Gallery
2. Thick As A Brick
3. Aqualung
4. Benefit
5. Stand Up

 

Just the 60's and 70's output. Kind of lost interest after that.

This Was 8
Stand Up 9
Benefit 9
Aqualung 10
Thick As A Brick 10
Living In The Past 10

A Passion Play 8.5
WarChild 9
Minstrel In The Gallery 8
Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young To Die 7
Songs From The Wood 7.5
Heavy Horses 8
Stormwatch 8

 

This Was 7/10
Stand Up 10/10
Benefit 8/10
Aqualung 10/10
Thick As A Brick 10/10
Living In The Past 9/10
A Passion Play 8/10
Warchild 8/10
Minstrel In The Gallery 8/10
Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! 7/10
Songs From The Wood 9/10
Heavy Horses 9/10
Stormwatch 8/10

 

Thick as a Brick 10
Aqualung 9
Songs from the Wood 9
Minstrel in the Gallery 8
A Passion Play 8

I think these are all the ones I have. Great band.

 

Aqualung 9/10
Thick As A Brick 7/10
A Passion Play 7/10
Warchild 7/10
Minstrel In The Gallery 7/10
Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! 6/10
Songs From The Wood 8/10
Heavy Horses 9/10
Stormwatch 7/10
A 7/10
Broadsword and The Beast 9/10
Under Wraps 8/10
Crest Of A Knave 8/10
Rock Island 6/10
Catfish Rising 7/10
Roots To Branches 8/10
J-Tull Dot Com 3/10

 

Stand Up - resequenced, replacing "Fat Man" with "Living in the Past" and "We Used to Know" with "Living in the Past"- 8.5/10
Benefit - resequenced, replacing "Sossity You're a Woman" with "Teacher" 9.5/10
Aqualung 10/10
Thick as a Brick 8/10
Passion Play 8/10
War Child - original 5/10
War Child - reworked track listing using non-album tracks - 8/10
Minstrel in the Gallery - 8.5/10

 

My order of preference:
Benefit 10/10
Stand Up 8/10
This Was 7/10
Aqualung 6/10

I used to have Thick as Brick and Passion Play, but never re-bought those when I navigated over to CD. I rarely listen to Aqualung.

 

I've only heard the following:

Aqualung 10
Thick As A Brick 10
Living In The Past 9
A Passion Play 7
Stormwatch 6

I just bought a NM copy of Heavy Horses for $3 I'll listen to and rate it soon.

I have the Steven Wilson mix of Aqualung, the rest are original vinyl releases. It sounds like some are significant improvements, worth getting?

 

This Was 7/10
Stand Up 8/10
Benefit 9/10
Aqualung 10/10
Thick As A Brick 10/10
Living In The Past 8/10
A Passion Play 10/10
Warchild 8/10
Minstrel In The Gallery 9/10
Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! 8/10
Songs From The Wood 9/10
Heavy Horses 8/10
Stormwatch 7/10
`A' 5/10
Broadsword and The Beast 6/10
Under Wraps 2/10
Crest Of A Knave 6/10
Rock Island 4/10
Catfish Rising 3/10
Roots To Branches 4/10
J-Tull Dot Com 4/10

13 good to great albums
8 clunkers

Still one of my favorite bands.

 

Jethro Tull Albums Ranked Worst to Best

Anderson&Co. (tiny TULL) mention of the newest DAY | The Jethro Tull Forum »

 

This Was 8/10
Stand Up 8/10
Benefit 9/10
Aqualung 10/10
Thick As A Brick 10/10
Living In The Past 8/10
A Passion Play 6/10
Warchild 7/10
Minstrel In The Gallery 10/10
Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! 7/10
Songs From The Wood 9/10
Heavy Horses 10/10
Stormwatch 10/10
`A' 6/10
Broadsword and The Beast 9/10
Under Wraps 4/10
Crest Of A Knave 6/10
Rock Island 8.5/10
Catfish Rising 7.5/10
Roots To Branches 8/10
J-Tull Dot Com 6/10

 

under wraps and dotcom
all the rest was necessary at some point

 

I'm going to rate the ones I have:

This Was 8
Stand Up 10
Benefit 10
Aqualung 9.5
Thick As A Brick 9
Living In The Past 9

A Passion Play 8
WarChild - 8.5
Minstrel in the Gallery - 9.5
Too Old To Rock & Roll - 7
Songs From The Wood 8.5
Heavy Horses 8.5
Stormwatch 9

A 7
The Broadsword And The Beast 6.5

Crest Of A Knave 7
Rock Island 7

20 Years Of - box set 9

 

yikes dot com is taking a beating and I found 90% of it pretty high quality stuff