It’s the 40th anniversary of Jethro Tull‘s seminal (pardon the pun) album, Aqualung, and EMI/Chrysalis has done a fine, fine job with the remastering and packaging. Now, I’m not gonna sit here and give you a review of the album…because you know it! It’s a classic.
1971 was a turning point for Tull as they were fully sloughing off their earlier blues-rock simplicity (which was also brilliant) and were ever-progressing into new territory, creating their own unique sound. In effect, they were pioneering rock music like their other progressive rock contemporaries, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, Pink Floyd and King Crimson. As a matter of fact, Yes’ Fragile, ELP’s Tarkus, Pink Floyd’s Meddle, and King Crimson’s Islands all came out that year! Shit, Led Zeppelin was even recording IV in the same building at the same time as Tull was recording Aqualung. That was a pretty major year!
The new remastering job, done by Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson, is nothing short of brilliant. In fact, it’s a completely new stereo mix for this 40th anniversary edition. Which means Wilson went back to the original studio multi-track masters and balanced and perfected the sound on all the individual instrumental and vocal tracks. So it’s more a remixerbation, innit? (Although a remastering of the original mix does appear on the limited collector’s edition.)
Wilson didn’t attempt to ‘modernize’ the recording, thank goodness, but cleaned up a lot of the things that Tull mastermind, Ian Anderson wish could’ve been cleaned up originally. The mud is gone. You will hear instrumentation brought out in the subtlest way, which is like uncovering buried treasure. You may not even believe the quiet that you hear after that first riff in “Aqualung”…serious noise floor reduction.
And the bonus disc is not at all throwaway material like you find in a lot of reissues. The sound quality throughout is top-notch and there are some brilliant alternate versions and remixed tunes that didn’t appear on the album like “Lick Your Fingers Clean”, “Up the ‘Pool” and my fave “Life is a Long Song.” And if that’s the case, then play on!
And yes, the new reissue is available on vinyl. That is, if you smack down the clams for the limited collector’s edition. It includes a 180g heavyweight LP, 2CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray including various unreleased materials, new stereo mix, the original Quad mix, and 5.1 DTS and Dolby Digital Surround. It also includes a 12″ x 12″ 48-page hardback book featuring liner notes and an interview with Ian, memoirs from band members, rare photos, notes on the new mixes by Steven Wilson and Billie Ritchie, album lyrics, and of course…more.
The “special edition” includes just the two CDs.
Congrats to Jethro Tull on the 40th anniversary of Aqualung! It’s certainly been our pleasure listening.
