Jethro Tull – Curious Ruminant

Jethro Tull’s rebirth has been one of the most unexpected, yet welcomed events of the ’20s thus far. While only founder/frontman/flautist Ian Anderson remains from the band’s storied ’70s heyday, this musical resurrection has lead to two spectacular, yet radically different, albums, The Zealot Gene (2022) and RökFlöte (2023). Taking this into consideration, come the announcement of Tull’s third reboot era album, Curious Ruminant, I was immediately excited and, well, curious. What direction would Anderson and company take on this latest effort? If the last two albums proved anything, it’s that the septuagenarian prog icon was still rife with bold musical ideas and thought-provoking lyrical observations.

On Curious Ruminant, Tull expands upon the folk stylings of RökFlöte, albeit with a twist. Whereas RökFlöte was a guitar-heavy slab of old school folk rock, at times bordering on proto-folk metal (think Skyclad if they existed in the late ’70s), Curious Ruminant doubles…no, triples down on the folk side of things, stripping away the heftiness of past folk-oriented Tull releases in exchange for an album that’s largely laidback and pastoral in nature. Now as alarming as that might sound for the headbangers in the audience, even yours truly can get down to a solid prog-folk album once in a blue moon. Take Renaissance’s ’70s run, for example. Pure brilliance, although admittedly, even their brand of prog-folk boasted grandiose symphonic outbursts amidst. Curious Ruminant? Well, let’s cut to the chase, shall we?

Album #24 from these aqualunged legends kicks off with some brazenly dynamic compositions that, like RökFlöte before it, harken back to the band’s late ’70s folk era. Cuts like “Puppet and the Puppet Master”, “Stygian Hand”, and the title track are thrillingly vibrant. Yes, Anderson’s vocals aren’t what they used to be half a century ago, but this elder statesmen “narrator” approach (a role of which he assumed on Opeth’s The Last Will and Testament) fits the mold of the music at hand. In turn, does the music at hand hold up from start to finish? Unfortunately, not for this tried and true Tull-head.

Curious Ruminant‘s faults largely lie within its one-note, tedious delivery. It becomes evident early on that this is going to be a largely “unplugged” affair, which again, I can appreciate from time to time (i.e. Led Zeppelin’s III, Opeth’s Damnation, etc.) Alas, Curious Ruminant isn’t nearly as compelling, with ren faire ballads like “Dunsinane Hill”, “Savannah of Paddington Green”, and “Over Jerusalem” blurring into each other, weighing down the album heavily. The nearly 17 minute “Drink from the Same Well” makes matters only worse, its first half a mind-numbing soundscape of drum machine and flute sounding less like Tull and more like the type of new age muzak one would expect to hear in their primary’s waiting room. If this suite had been cut in half, it would make for a decent prog-folk exploration, but at this point in the album, comes off as a chore to finish.

It pains me to say, but upon initial listen, Curious Ruminant had me retreating for the riff-centric stylings of “Aqualung”, “Beastie”, and other assorted Tull classics of yesteryear. For my money, this is a band who are at their strongest, both in terms of music and messaging, when at their most rocking, hence what made RökFlöte such a triumph. Perhaps my view of Curious Ruminant will change with time, but I can’t see that happening so long as I prefer guitar to mandolin and dungeons and dragons to bards and fairies, or whatever ye olde English folklore that constitutes this release.

5 out of 10

Label: InsideOut Music

Genre: Progressive Rock

For fans of: Wishbone Ash, Renaissance, Opeth