Jethro Tull - The Zealot Gene.

Jethro Tull
The Zealot Gene
(InsideOut)
9/10
By Paul Davies

Ian Anderson has clearly been pondering the meaning of life judging by the hefty lyrical and musical content of the songs on this long-awaited and outstanding album. Re-establishing the Jethro Tull imprimatur on the front of this release, religious references and social critiques permeate this record of sharp-eyed observations about what appears to be a more dystopian society than in the most recent past. However, given the similarities, this is no literal re-tread back to some of the musical and lyrical themes found on Aqualung but a thought-provoking modern-day updated folk-rock masterpiece of sorts and thoughts. And Anderson has compiled his thoughts with no little acuity wrapping them up in these epic folk and rock music idioms with the panache of Tull records of yore. There is plenty of musical variety on show here that entertains whilst continually prodding the brain with thought-provoking lyrics.

There’s a definite reprise of the classic sound from Tull’s bucolic rock trio of late seventies albums and the further folk elements of Broadsword and Roots to Branches leavened by references to the bible based around strong human emotions. Opening the album with Mrs Tibbets, its title derived from Enola Gay Tibbets the mother of the captain pilot who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, its heavyweight lyrical content is perfectly matched by the twisty arrangement and explosive rock guitar motifs of old school Tull. The title track’s rage at populism is offset by melodic peeps and toots of the flute finding Anderson treading on pleasantly familiar ground. However, none more so than one of the album’s stand out tracks Mine Is The Mountain which harks back to Aqualung’s My God in its epic musical landscaping and lyrical message about a put-upon God.

The story-based compositions most certainly make this a concept album and something of which Anderson flourishes at creating. However, there are detours of social observation on Sad City Sisters a song about vulnerable females on a night out on the town. Yet it’s the larger-than-life cousin in Anderson’s family who became an eccentric and errant priest and is featured in Barren Beth, Wild Desert John that adds a bizarre reality to the text and texture of the engaging tunes. The closing track, The Fisherman Of Ephesus, time -travels the listener back to the ancient marvel of Ephesus, where Anderson once played in its remarkable amphitheatre in the ‘90s, and brims with classic Tull musical tropes as does this entire thoughtful and very impressive return to form album.