Jethro Tull – War Child
hello all! i’m a bit late this week, but our next album in the Jethro Tull discography is 1974’s War Child!
War Child is a very interesting album – Jethro Tull stepped away from their full-side track technique from the last two records and back into a more traditional album structure, but it seems that War Child was no less conceptual. there was a movie that the band wasnt able to find financing for that these tracks would have functioned as the soundtrack for. some of the more instrumental, traditional score tracks are even bonus tracks on the 2002 remaster of this record.
im not sure i can draw any strict narrative on this record, but Anderson definitely has some thematic preoccupations here. as expected from the title, War Child and Queen and Country deal with war, conscription, and death. i particularly like War Child’s use of the bombing sound effects under the solo and the extended outro telling the listener to “dance the days and dance the nights away”. and Queen and Country has a killer chorus, no two ways about it. The Third Hoorah loops back around to the War Child aesthetic in a cacophanous track that could have closed the record, honestly. i do dig Two Fingers as the proper closer though – it definitely touches both on some of the themes from A Passion Play and what ive read the plot of the movie was intended to be, in terms of the afterlife and religion.
there were two of Jethro Tull’s bigger tracks here as well – Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day is a very very good acoustic guitar-focused track, with some neat lyrics. Bungle In the Jungle was part of the tracks from a failed record between Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play – some the songs appeared either on Passion Play or here, and Bungle is a bit more of a conventional rock tune for the time and def saw some radio play. very good song!
there are also a few tracks here that are solid but dont do it for me. Ladies is an interesting track, but not really my style, and Sealion is throwing a lot out musically but not landing for me at all.
on the whole, pretty neat record!
faves – War Child, Queen and Country, Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day, Bungle In the Jungle
dislikes –
War Child – 6/10
first: This Was | previous: A Passion Play | next: Minstrel In the Gallery
all my reviews for Jethro Tull
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