Rating "Jethro Tull " albums?

Secret Language of Birds is a later period classic Tull-related release that I think is better than anything they put out since Broadsword. Rupi's Dance was more of the same but....less.

 

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

 

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

 

In honor of Ian's 70 birthday, I've been listening to his music all day. Might as well have a crack at this.

This Was 5/10 - Haven't listened to this one much.

Stand Up 9/10 - Love having the bonus tracks on the remasters and the new deluxe box sets. Trying to judge these mostly on the original album.

Benefit 10/10 - Wish the Deluxe Edition came in the superb box format like the others!

Aqualung 10/10 - One of my top twenty albums of all time.

Thick As A Brick 10/10 - I spent a few years in my teens trying to find the flute solo which appears before "The Poet And The Painter"

A Passion Play 5/10 - Perhaps more listens to the Deluxe SW mix will help me here, but it doesn't grab me. I prefer the Chateau songs.

Warchild 9/10 - One of my first Tull LPs.

Minstrel In The Gallery 8/10 - Another one that I expect will get more listens now that I bought the Deluxe box this summer.

Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die 6/10

Songs From The Wood 8/10 - Love this style of Tull.

Heavy Horses 9/10 - Even better than SFTW! Hopefully more Deluxe boxes are on the way...

Stormwatch 8/10

A 4/10 - The only Tull album that I own exclusively on LP. It's been a long time since I've dug it out for a spin. Maybe tonight.

Broadsword 7/10 - I got a cool set of coasters with the Broadsword logo at a Tull show a few years ago. Gave up t-shirts years ago.

Under Wraps 2/10 - Released when I was in high school; we gave it a few listens and thought it was ok. Now probably the consensus pick for the nadir of the Tull catalog.

Crest Of A Knave 9/10 - It won a Grammy for Pete's sake! I think of it as a 'Career Achievement Grammy' rather than 'Heavy Metal'.

Rock Island 6/10

Catfish Rising 7/10

Nightcap 7/10 - One of the better "outtakes" albums out there from classic artists.

Roots To Branches 7/10

J-Tull Dot Com 5/10

The Jethro Tull Christmas Album 7/10


Walk Into Light 4/10

Divinities: Twelve Dances With God 6/10 - Listened to this during breakfast today, and it set a nice mood.

The Secret Language of Birds 7/10

Rupi's Dance 4/10

Thick As A Brick 2 8/10 - This works surprisingly well as a sequel.

Homo Erraticus 7/10

 

Stand corrected.
Missed that you did indeed rate Aqualung.
Again, would still recommend listening to early albums in entirety, specifically Stand Up and Benefit. And I'm also a prog guy!!
This Was is their most bluesy album.

 

Can't rate original albums when they are missing half of tulls best 100 songs

 

This Was 8.5
Stand Up 10
Benefit 10
Aqualung 10
Thick As A Brick 10
Living In The Past 9

Don't care much for the ones that follow...

 

This Was 6
Stand Up 8
Benefit 7
Aqualung 8
Thick As A Brick 10
A Passion Play 10
War Child 8
Minstrel In The Gallery 10
Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young To Die 6
Songs From The Wood 9
Heavy Horses 10
Stormwatch 6
A 5
The Broadsword And The Beast 6
Under Wraps 4
Crest Of A Knave 5
Rock Island 5
Catfish Rising 6
Roots To Branches 9
J-Tull.com 8
A Christmas Album 9

Living In The Past 8
20 Years 8
25 Years 6
Nightcap 8

 

Fair ratings.

 

Yeah. I bought the 45' single when it came out, living in the past indeed

 

I enjoyed the interview very much. Thank you.

 

This Was - 6
Stand Up - 10
Benefit - 8
Aqualung - 10
Thick As A Brick - 10
Living In The Past - 8
A Passion Play - 8
Warchild - 8
Minstrel In The Gallery - 8
Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! - 6
Songs From The Wood - 10
Heavy Horses - 9
Stormwatch - 8
`A' - 6
Broadsword and The Beast - 7
Under Wraps - 2
Crest Of A Knave - 7 (almost a 6 due to some questionable songs like Mountain Men)
Rock Island - 7
Catfish Rising - 7
Roots To Branches - 8 (under-rated, only held back by Ian's diminished voice)
J-Tull Dot Com - 7 (also unfairly maligned)
Christmas Album - 7

 

Quite welcome. I took a hiatus from writing due to our move from NY to TX, but am now back in the saddle (they really don't talk that way in Austin) and plan to publish some new material soon. Thanks for the nod.

 

This link should make finding the Ian Anderson interview a bit easier for others.

 

Thank you.

 

This Was - 6
Stand Up - 7
Benefit - 7
Aqualung - 5 (it just sounds like their most generic hard rock to me, with some good songs that I'm tired of hearing)
Thick As A Brick - 8
Living In The Past - 9
A Passion Play - 10 (I absolutely love it)
Warchild - 10 (I absolutely love it)
Minstrel In The Gallery - 8
Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! - 6
Songs From The Wood - 10 (I absolutely love it)
Heavy Horses - 9
Stormwatch - 6
`A' - 5 (generic too, in this case a geriatric band trying out electronica)
Broadsword and The Beast - 4
Under Wraps - 3
Crest Of A Knave - 2
Rock Island - 1
Catfish Rising - 0
Roots To Branches - negative 1
J-Tull Dot Com - negative 2
Christmas Album - too short to count, but I like it

 

These ratings work for me too. I think I'd bump up 'Too Old to Rock and Roll" to a '9' though. The deluxe edition is really great. Love it.

 

This Was ... 8
Stand Up ... 7
Benefit ... 9
Aqualung ... 10
Thick As A Brick ... 7.5
Living In The Past ... 9
A Passion Play ... 7
Warchild ... 6
Minstrel In The Gallery ... 7
Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! ... 5
Songs From The Wood ... 4