This decade has seen Ian Anderson engaged in creativity and productivity almost as active as back in the ’70s. Apart from the steady stream of archival box sets that he’s heavily involved in, the veteran extended JETHRO TULL discography by two albums, “The Zealot Gene” and “RökFlöte” – which, issued, respectively, in 2022 and 2023 closed a two-decade gap in quick succession – yet there’s another record in the pipeline now. Titled “Curious Ruminant” and planned for release on March 7th, the platter’s announcement came as a short clip, posted below, and the audio of the titular piece, bearing a portrait of Descartes, the band for some reason removed from YouTube soon after its unveiling and then restored as a Dali-esque video.
Curious Ruminant
Featuring, alongside the leader, the ensemble’s latter-day mainstays David Goodier on bass, John O’Hara on ivories and Scott Hammond on drums, as well as a new guitarist, Jack Clark, and former keyboard player Andrew Giddings, the album contains the collective’s longest-ever number, as “Drink From The Same Well” runs for 16 minutes and 41 seconds, thus beating “Baker St. Muse” by two seconds. As for formats, there are quite a few, including a regular and a special edition CD, two-CD-and-Blu-ray with Dolby Atmos and 5.1 Surround Sound mixes by Bruce Soord, and vinyl versions. What’s not to like?
1. Puppet And The Puppet Master
2. Curious Ruminant
3. Dunsinane Hill
4. The Tipu House
5. Savannah Of Paddington Green
6. Stygian Hand
7. Over Jerusalem
8. Drink From The Same Well
9. Interim Sleep
