Wond’ring Aloud
Not ones for living in the past, Jethro Tull are back with their 24th album, and third in three years, Curious Ruminant. Billed as one of their best yet, it finds frontman Ian Anderson embracing his love of sci-fi and issuing a warning about climate change. Prog catches up with the septuagenarian flautist to discuss building on the band’s legacy, hamming it up for the crowd and making sure all the semiquavers are in the right place.
Words: James McNair
Ian Anderson, the masked singer.
Images: Ian Anderson
Twenty minutes into his scheduled 9am Zoom interview with Prog, Ian Anderson has yet to appear. This is very unlike him and there is speculation about his whereabouts. Is he feeding his chickens? His pigs? Has he become absorbed in some music at his home studio? It’s a safe bet Jethro’s Tull’s venerable leader is up and doing something, because even now –or maybe especially now, given time’s year-stealing march –indolence is not this driven, 77-year-old flautist’s way.
Suddenly Anderson appears on screen, apologising that he has only just learned of a Google spreadsheet apprising him of the day’s many tasks. It turns out he’s been up since 6.30am (“A late start”) and has already replied to Derek Shulman of Gentle Giant’s email requesting a quote of endorsement for an upcoming memoir.
“I thought, ‘OK, another end-of-life story,’” says Tull’s frontman, “but it’s what we do when we get older, right? You want to leave a legacy that isn’t just carved on your tombstone, but also carved in your own memory before it’s too late.”
After 24 studio albums and almost 60 years with Jethro Tull, Anderson’s legacy looks safe even before you factor in his not inconsiderable solo output. Tull’s latest LP Curious Ruminant fulfils the contractual stipulations of their three-album deal with German prog label InsideOutMusic, but unlike 2022’s The Zealot Gene and 2023’s RökFlöte, it’s not a concept album and feels weightier, closer to home.
“This is a record where you’ll see the words ‘I’ and ‘me’ more often than is usual in Jethro Tull lyrics,” Anderson confirms. “It’s not entirely introspective, but it is a more personal set of views, observations and feelings about various topics. I wanted to be a little more heart-on-sleeve.”
Those “various topics” include songs about audience and performer, about bereavement and avarice and betrayal. The consensus among those at Prog is that Curious Ruminant is rather special; a welcome return to the folky, yet heavy Tull sound that many of us first fell for back in the 70s.
Does Anderson see the new record as a milestone, too? “Not really,” he says levelly. “It’s just a collection of songs, in the same way that Aqualung was a collection of songs.”