HW: What A hawkfan listens to

[Stephan Forstner]

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 Brian Halligan <blackblade at BHALLIGAN.COM> wrote:
>> In the CD player this weekend:
>> Jethro Tull  - The Christmas Album
>
>How is Ian Anderson's voice on this one? Also, do the re-recordings live up
>to the originals?
>
>I've just had an Eric Bloom/"Cult Classics" deja vu.

Erm, I'd have to say that Eric does a better job of impersonating himself
on CC than Ian does on TCA. OK, that wording is a bit snarky and will annoy
some people, the singers not least, so, sorry, but you know what I mean.
Actually, on first listen, I was thinking that Ian's vocals were better
than they had a right to be, but when I listened more closely I realized
that I was so familiar with those songs that my subconscious was filling in
stuff that wasn't there. Also on first listen the re-recordings (and new
stuff) sounded a bit too Adult Contemporary for my tastes, but I find that
they have grown on me quite a lot - this disc isn't going to make the
greatest Tull albums list though, not by any stretch. So I'm a bit
ambivalent about it, but its not bad, in a slightly 'mature', slightly
jazzy, slightly over-produced way.

Stephan