February 11, 1977 - Songs From The Wood

About 3 weeks since my last release and a little under a year since "Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young To Die!", Jethro Tull released their tenth studio album "Songs From The Wood" on February 11, 1977. Tull move in a different direction on this album as it is less hard rock and more folk-influenced than their previous albums. Also Dee Palmer, who has contributed orchestral arrangements to the past several Tull albums, became a full-time member of the band. He also plays keyboards, adding even more complexity to the progressive rock. Let's check it out!

The albums begins with "Songs From The Wood" as Ian Anderson starts singing right from the get-go. His voice still sounds pretty great as the first couple verses are sung a capella. Anderson plays a little flute and adds a nice acoustic guitar riff to the verse as the rest of the band slowly join in as well to form a cool forest-y main riff. Bass and piano sound nice as well and Palmer also adds some light orchestral stuff. John Glascock does a great job on bass as he and John Evan segue nicely into a cool new part. Anderson takes lead with some cool flutes and Martin Barre plays some nice lead guitar. They slow it down again and return to the opening riff for one final verse. It certainly has a different vibe to it than Jethro Tull are used to, but I thought it was a solid song and a decent opener. The next song, "Jack-In-The-Green" has Anderson playing every instrument you hear in this short tune. He plays flute, acoustic guitar and mandolin I believe in addition to his singing. It all combines for a cool folk-ish riff as Ian sings along to his guitar. He adds some maracas for some percussion in this solo song that is alright, but not amazing, I'd rather hear the whole band. Track 3 is "Cup Of Wonder" and it starts with flute and guitar syncing up for a cool bit. They move into another acoustic-led main riff with Glascock playing some nice bass as well. Evan and Palmer's keyboards are very faint in this one as is Barre's lead guitar. It's a much simpler style that doesn't use the extravagant awesomeness that both Barre and Evan can deliver, which is a little disappointing. Barriemore Barlow starts a quick new drum beat as Evan plays the main flute riff on his piano. This middle instrumental part has some great contributions from everyone before they return to the simple verse. This song wasn't bad by any means, it was quite catchy I thought, but the reduced usage of prog and more focus on acoustics is a huge shift down for these guys after their last several albums. Up next is "Hunting Girl" as Anderson plays some epic flute in the opening and Evan plays some pretty sweet keyboards. Anderson's flute leads the way as the band plays a nice backing riff. A minute in Barre adds a great lead guitar riff as they move into the first verse. Anderson sings and plays some cool flute in the verse while Evan and Barre are both heavily involved as well. This is what I'm talkin' about! After another verse Barre plays a short but pretty good solo before they play out another verse. Barlow and Glascock have lots of cool stuff to play as well as this is easily my favourite song on the album so far: everyone is involved and everything sounds great! They end it on an epic note as this really cool song comes to an end. The first side ends with the first single from the album, "Ring Out, Solstice Bells". It opens with some epic flute and piano as they move into a fast-paced verse. Anderson's voice sounds wonderful and this interesting clapping verse sounds pretty cool. They get very quiet for the chorus and we hear some more great flute and piano by Anderson and Evan. Palmer plays some orchestra-like synths that add to the epicness and we even hear the title bells in the third verse. Barlow plays some epic drums at the end as the song fades to a close. An interesting choice for a single, but I thought they did a great job on it and this whole side was pretty good!

Side two opens with "Velvet Green" and Evan plays some cool keyboards to kick it off. Anderson and Barre join in to form another old, folk-y riff and Ian's vocals fit the mood very nicely. They move into a cool acoustic-led riff with Anderson singing a nice new verse. Evan takes over as they segue into a new part that has lots of great keyboards, flute and some nice drumming by Barlow. After this cool instrumental part it's back for another quiet, cool verse and chorus to finish the song. Up next is "The Whistler" with Anderson leading the way on acoustic once again. Barlow plays some cool percussion and Evan adds some synths to this soft beat to spice it up a bit before Ian starts the first verse. Anderson is front and center this whole song as he sings, plays acoustic and also does all the cool Celtic-like whistling! It's a pretty upbeat song that'll have you toe-tapping in no time! Track 8 is called "Pibroch (Cap In Hand)" and Barre starts it off with some droning electric guitar that sounds pretty sweet!  After a minute of this 8 and a half minute song Anderson joins in with some wonderful flute flourishes and the rest of the band forms a slow, epic backing track led by some cool bass by Glascock. Anderson and Barre lead the way and after the verse they return to the epic opening riff. After another verse they move into a new part with lots of different keyboards by both Evan and Palmer. It's an interesting mix that sounds alright and then it's back to the opening riff again for a few more goes. Anderson plays a pretty cool flute solo and Evan and Palmer combine again to play some epic stuff that sounds like a movie score! Both solos were pretty great and they close it out with one final verse, and one final go of the epic opening riff. It's a little stale at this point, but still a decent riff as it fades to a close. The last song is "Fire At Midnight" as Evan plays some epic keyboards while Anderson sings and plays flute beautifully. Barre plays some excellent lead guitar on this short song as he and Anderson combine for some great stuff. They play another beautiful verse to close it out very nicely and wrap up this mostly acoustic album.

That is the end of "Songs From The Wood" and I thought it was a pretty good album. I'm normally all for the long, progressive stuff that Jethro Tull have done in the past, but this seemed like a nice change after their third concept album last year. "Hunting Girl" was my favourite and there were several other songs that were full of energy as these guys seemed to get back to basics on this record. But how does it compare against their many other albums? I think this one easily beats their bottom three albums and was even better than "Benefit" but I don't think it belongs in the top five either where their progressive epics are. I would place this new album just below "Living In The Past" making it my sixth favourite studio album and seventh overall so far. Who knows what direction they will go in next time, but I will be there to listen!