Disagree. It has a nice intro, but the whole thing seems forced and contrived, including the silly newspaper and the fake story. Ian learned from this project and went onto create A Passion Play, which is far superior without all the nonsense.
My Favorite is their Live albums ...... 1, Bursting Out 2, Living With The Past 2002 Studio ...... 1, Aqualung 2, Thick As A Brick 3, Minstrel In The Gallery 4, Songs From The Wood 5, Benefit 6, Stormwatch 7, Stand Up 8, A Passion Play 9, To Old To Rock 'n' Roll 10, War Child
I was really blown away by A Passion Play as well. It's absolutely magnificent! Perhaps critics were starting to turn on concept albums at the time... Even though it did reach Billboards #1
Aqualung, Thick as a brick and Catfish rising were always my top 3 Tull records. Until recently when I really discovered Songs from the wood and Stand up and now those two are my favourites. What an incredible band.
"Let me bring you songs from the woods, to make you feel much better than you can know. Dust you down from tip to toe, show you how the gardens grow, hold steady as you join the chorus if you can, it'll make of you an honest man."
If you have just discovered Songs from the Wood and Stand Up, I would urge you to discover, if you haven't already: War Child, Minstrel in the Gallery, Passion Play, Living in the Past, Benefit, and Too Old to Rock and Roll. If you like those continue on to Broadsword and the Beast and Stormwatch.
Ahh. i'm glad you liked Stormwatch but you neglected to mention my favorite song: Old Ghosts. It brings a tear to my eye each time especially the line about an old dog in pain. The older you get, the more you can relate to that line.
Baker STREET Muse. Not SAINT!!! You said that twice - did you really listen to it or read the lyrics? It is all about the famous London street, not the canonized cake baker. 😂 Great review!! You are a smart dude to embrace prog rock.
Ha!! I guess I need a reminder every so often that I’m human and make mistakes! Hopefully you won’t hold it too much against me 😂. Thanks for the comment! Glad you appreciated the review (other than the aforementioned flub 😉).
1. Songs from the Wood 2. Minstrel in the Gallery 3. Heavy Horses 4. Benefit 5. Thick as a Brick 6. A Passion Play 7. Aqualung 8. Broadsword and the Beast 9. Crest of a Knave 10. Stormwatch
Great work Nathan! I’ve been really looking forward to this video, and you’ve not disappointed. Jethro Tull have an absolutely mammoth discography, so going from only knowing a handful of albums to coming up with a complete ranking that you’re happy with is no mean feat. As expected, there were moments where I was nodding along in sage agreement (War Child definitely doesn’t get enough love!), and points where I pulled some very odd faces as certain surprises cropped up. I don’t think I could do a complete ranking without putting a lot of time in, but my top 5 has been pretty stable for a while: 1. A Passion Play 2. Minstrel in the Gallery 3. Heavy Horses 4. Thick as a Brick 5. A Yes, A makes my top 5! I definitely recommend you giving that gorgeous LP behind you a few more spins when you’re next in a Tull mood (which probably won’t be for some time!). A is an incredibly underrated album, IMO; one that’s exponentially grown in my estimation with every single listen. Like you (and most prog fans), I generally prefer a nice warm 70's type production sound, but that slightly clinical 80's quality REALLY suits the songwriting on A. It's a great accompaniment to a chilly November evening. So who's your next candidate for the album ranking treatment? Zappa? (I jest. Kinda...)
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I felt a bit of pressure on this one because of how extensive the discography is, so it is great to know that it is being appreciated! I really love your top 5! It does make me want to go and give 'A' some more listens! I did really like it and felt that it was head and shoulders above all of the other 80s and beyond albums, but I'm sure it could rise even higher in my ranking as I give it more listening time! My plan at the moment is to rank a newer Prog band's catalog (The Flower Kings) and then I'm diving into Marillion (another band I'm less familiar with). I'm hoping also to tackle Genesis sometime down the road (maybe by the end of the year?). It takes me quite some time to put out these videos, so I plan on releasing one every other month or so. But, it is a fun project, even if I have anxiety about how they will be received!
please do rank Ian Anderson's catalogue. Keep up the good work. Thumbing through stacks at the record store when I was 15, I bought "This Was" primarily for the humor in the title...and album artwork. Well, I have never stopped listening & enjoying Anderson's bands' output ... even Steel Monkeys & Budapest ..."and her legs went on forever, like staring up at infinity". :)
Really good Nathan really good . Too old to rockn roll just dosnt gell with me though I recently revisited but it confirmed to me its not a favourite of mine however we all listen to albums in different ways. Please revisit underwraps it's better than you think.But thankyou your delivery is really good I look forward to listening to you more. Tim uk
Great review Nathan! Everyone has different opinions especially about their favorite bands when it comes to ranking discography's. For me Benefit is probably in my top 5. Glad to see A Passion Play ranked so high, probably 4 on my list. Keep up the great work. I really enjoy your Channel!
Great ranking Nathan! I also place Thick as a Brick as number one. I also think their 70's catalogue is their strongest material, though I love their early more bluesy material as well.
Great job Nathan! Agreed with a lot, surprised by some. I got a lot of joy from the 90's stuff in real time, but can also agree with your assessments of those albums in many cases. I even view Under Wraps as just a "Strange Avenue" taken by the band. Was disappointed by it in real time, but enjoy visiting it now and then. Songs from the wood and Thick as a brick alternate as my favorite albums, depending on mood and amount of time to consume. Guess I'll have to revisit Too Old to R&R, always appreciated some of it, but would never introduce a new fan to it Lol
Thanks! I’m sure my opinions will continue to shift as I listen to the albums more, but this was just my feeling from this particular listen through. My top six or so are pretty solid though I would guess.
Hi Nathan. First of all there is no ordinary ranking,we all listen differently. My no 1 is AQUALUNG 2 Broadsword. I do have my difficulty with passion play and minstrel though. Great video Nathan 😊
It's fair to mention that on Zealot Gene, Anderson simply can no longer sing. Even with all the studio trickery available, there's no faking it. And he shouldn't be doing it. It just tarnishes his amazing legacy. And as a fan of the band from their inception, I have to say in retrospect, the very best album is Stand Up. An absolutely perfect album.
@peterg5383 Anyone who makes a typo out to be their main point is most certainly not to be taken seriously. And you if you still think Ian can still sing you might want to seriously reconsider commenting on music.
Great thing you do, Nathan! And you are right - it sometimes depends only to the mood of the day which album is on number 10 or on number six or anything. You explained it clear that some records are your favs and some are not, and i think your favs are the favs to most of us. I would have rated Benefit and Stand Up a little higher, cause i'm into their early sounds. And I would have rated Aqualung a bit lower, maybe i'm tired of it a little bit and of "Locomotive". And i'm glad that you regard "To old to rock..." as one of their ten best albums, i'm with you, especially relating to the Steven Wilson remake of it. And yes, they want to stand outside of the prog movement, smiling at it with irony, but presenting us two or three everlasting classics of it!
1. Songs From The Wood (1977) 2. Aqualung (1971) 3. Thick as a Brick (1972) 4. Heavy Horses (1978) 5. War Child (1974) 6. Stormwatch (1979) 7. Minstrel In The Gallery (1975) 8. The Broadsword and The Beast (1982) 9. Benefit (1970) 10. A (1980) 11. A Passion Play (1973) 12. Stand Up (1969) 13. The Zealot Gene (2022) 14. Roots to Branches (1995) 15. Rock Island (1989) 16. Crest of a Knave (1987) 17. The JT Christmas Album (2003) 18. Too Old to Rock and Roll: Too Young to Die (1976) 19. Catfish Rising (1991) 20. This Was (1968) 21. J-Tull Dot Com (1999) 22. Under Wraps (1984)
Awesome job Nathan. As an old Tull head really enjoyed your presentation. My personal list 1 Thick 2 Aqualung 3 Stand Up 4 Living in the Past 5 A Passion Play 6 Songs from the Wood 7 Benefit 8 Warchild Followed by Stormwatch, Heavy Horses, Minstrel, Too Old and A
3-5 years for a successful operation to take hold. You are 10 months old now so, I love your dissertations on prog overall, keep going, one day you'll start seeing results.
Great job in covering the Tull discography. Overall, your ranking is quite similar to mine (same top 6, although different order) and I agree with much of your comments. I know all of the 70’s albums very well and are some of my all time favorites. However, I have not yet listened to any of the later albums (beyond broadsword), except for crest of a knave and the new one zealot gene. So my list is only of the top 15. Here are my rankings. 1. Thick As A Brick 2. Aqualung 3. Songs From The Wood Each of these top 3 are absolute masterpieces 4. Minstrel in the Gallery 5. A Passion Play 6. Heavy Horses 7. War Child 8. Stormwatch 9. Stand Up 10. A All of these top 10 are pretty great albums 11. Too Old To Rock and Roll 12. Benefit 13. Broadsword and the Beast 14. The Zealot Gene 15. Crest of a Knave
Here's mine...everything after top 5 to Rock Island can likely move from day to day. Below Rock Island they still get a listen but at a much lower frequency. Controversial takes: I rate UW quite highly and have little time for PP. Brick Songs From The Wood Aqualung Roots Horses Minstrel Stormwatch Under Wraps Dot Com Broadsword Zealot Crest Christmas Stand Up Too Old Benefit Warchild Rock Island Catfish A Passion Play This Was
Great Ranking but You missed Thick as a Brick 2 Yes I understand it is Ian Anderson’s Jethro Tull thick as a brick 2 But I think you’ve got a include it definitely better than some of your lower ranking albums
I go with the following top 10 (but, then again, I've been a fan since 1970, when my brother gave me Benefit as a Birthday present): 1. Thick as a Brick 2. Aqualung 3. Heavy Horses 4. Stand Up 5. Living in the Past 6. Minstrel in the Gallery 7. Songs from the Wood 8. Benefit 9. A Passion Play 10. Crest of a Knave
Most rock bands who've been around that long their albums all suffer I always find that the best music by a band is the decade they started in basically in primarily Jethro Tull was at their best in the seventies
I like what you are doing. So far as Tull goes, I have followed them since I was a teen. I have waited out in front of record stores awaiting their next release for years.
.COM has some decent songs on it, but I have to say that "Hot Mango Flush", to my ears anyway, remains Tull's overall worst song ever put on a disc. Maybe a bonus buried somewhere in a boxed set, but OMG... a horrid track 🤯
Greetings Nathan!! Just finished watching this fantastic TULL ranking episode, and although our rankings do differ, I loved hearing your take on the discography, and the love and passion you have for Tull and their music!! I love that you include in your ranking a pseudo disclaimer as to why you feel your rankings may be different than other rankings and/or existing web reviews. We all have different ears and different frames of reference, and that certainly comes into play when listening to any album, by any band, for the first time. I bought "Thick As A Brick" the day it was released, and I can tell you that my friends and I, who listened to it together in my home, soiled our skivvies!!! A Masterpiece, to be sure. Yes, my rankings are different because I was introduced to Tull when I bought the album "Benefit", having no idea who they were. I almost passed on buying it, because I wasn't so sure about "the guy with the flute". I thought, "how rockin' can it be?" Because of that connection, and it being my first Tull album, I have never been able to move it from the ranking of #1. Is some of that nostalgia? Probably. But listening to it today harkens back to a time when I was a musical sponge. I wanted to hear everything, to buy everything, and learn as much as I could about as many bands and genres as possible. So with that said, my "view" of any given album will differ from yours... as it should be. If we all felt the same way about every album, it would be a boring world, and your show would just be a mirror of my taste and opinion, so what good would that be. Regardless of our differing rankings, I love your show, I love hearing your take on these albums, and I love your honesty and openness regarding the music. Keep up the great work! I know it takes a lot of time and energy to put these shows together, and I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that we appreciate you, Jana and Doug very much! I still have some catching up to do, since I'm a newer subscriber, so I best get to it!! Hope you and your beautiful family are enjoying a wonderful Sunday, and that you are all well and happy!! Take care, my friend!!
Greetings!! Thank you so much for this comment- it means a lot to me. I love how you describe how we all have different ears and frames of reference for this music. That was my hope for this channel- to give a unique perspective and spark some healthy discussion about music (and also to recommend new Prog music to people who may not be aware of it). I'll admit that I can often be sensitive to negative comments. That is why I started putting my disclaimer in front of the ranking videos I do. People would get upset about how I ranked albums and would put me down in the comments (although I'll admit that the positive comments vastly outweigh the negative- I'm just sensitive to it, so the negative ones stand out). So, I wanted to emphasize in these videos that I don't view my list as a 'definitive' ranking of the albums- it is just in order of my preference based on my own experience with the music. I think it is awesome that everybody is so different and has their own lists based upon their own experiences and tastes. I just hope people come into the discussion with respect for everybody else's list. Thanks for having the right perspective, and I appreciate your encouragement to me and my family. It helps motivate me to keep putting videos out there! And hopefully over time, I'll get better and better at it!
Great job!, very thorough and well stated. I also never understood the hate for Too Old to Rock n roll. Not the best but still certainly still very good JT. I also really like War Child, glad to see that rated high. Keep up the great work.
If you really want to delve into APP and TAAB era look to two amazing bootlegs… yes bootlegs! I saw TAAB live two nights and APP six times. With A Passion Play the tour was a multimedia apex for any concert performance. The bootlegs may lack in sound quality but the extended solo pieces during this era and “new music” from Martin Barre and John Evan made the events spectacular. I grew up with Tull from 69 to 75 when i grew away from them. But APP was, is and always will be gladly ranked tied for #1 along with TAAB. Thanks, man!
Great stuff, Nathan! Always appreciate other views...your ranking list has"Too Old To Rock'n Roll"on it on nr7. Well I was a kid when I saw the TV-special from it. Always liked it! It's in my top 10 also. Quiz kid; Salamander( good rousing'folky'stuff); Taxi Grab...nice playing by Martin Barre. My top 3 would be: 1 Aqualung- 2 Thick As A Brick - 3 Songs From The Wood.
Scrolling down and reading many of the comments, I am stunned (but not overly surprised) to see some highly negative comments. We are all entitled to our own opinions. Please be respectful of this channel and all the hard work Nathan puts into putting it on for us, for our entertainment, and perhaps some education. In many instances, when I see someone rank and album much higher than I have, it makes me want to go and revisit it again. Sometimes we grab new albums the minute they come out, but based on what we've been listening to most recently, we may not be in the mood or proper frame of mind to enjoy it as we might if we heard it at a different time. When Supertramp came out with "Even In The Quietest Moments", I bought it, took it home, hated it, and returned it within the half-hour. A few months later I was listening to "Crisis? What Crisis?" and decided I needed to give EITQM's another try. I went back to the same store, bought it again, and absolutely LOVED IT!!! For me anyway, this is a very common scenario. Also, when you're as big a music nut as I am (and I presume we all are or we wouldn't be in here), we tend to acquire far more music in a short period of time than the average consumer. Sometimes we get so many new titles, some of them fall between the cracks. If we buy more than one in a day, and one in particular blows us away, one of the others may not get the attention it deserves. And lastly, when we were in our teens, we had the ability and the time to lay down on our beds with our headphones and truly digest an album, over and over again. In today's 'Amazon' society, we get too much too fast, and have far more responsibility and obligations than back in those teen years, so we don't necessarily have the same time to donate to a single album. Just sayin'. So when we all post our comments, none of us know where the rest of us fall in that listening timeline. So let's be more respectful and appreciative of what Nathan and his family are doing, and keep any criticisms to ourselves. Thanks!
1. Thick as a brick 2. Aqualung 3. Songs from the wood 4. Minstrel in the gallery 5. Stormwatch 6. Broadsword 7. Stand up 8. Too old to RnR 9. Benefit 10. Heavy horses 11. War child 12. A The first five rated albums differs on my mood, but definitely Stromwatch is so much underrated while Heavy horses is often too high rated. The same for War child, which is in my opinion a more weak album. All albums after 1982 are very weak because of the voice of I.A., ah, maybe except of the christmas album… but tastes are different…
I was seven years old when my father dumped a bunch of brand new cassettes in my lap, American Pie, Captain Beyond, Simon and Garfunkel"s GH, a bunch of others, and this funny looking newspaper covered Thick as a Brick. It mesmerized me, and confused me, and to this day it is one of the most influential musical moments of my life.
Nice ranking but War Child and Too old above Stand Up and Benefit? For me no way. I would strongly recommend that you listen them more. Thanks and keep going
Thick as a Brick Minstrel in the Gallery Heavy Horses Songs from the Wood A Passion Play Pretty sure that would be my top 5. All their 70's albums were great. In a certain way Songs From the Wood is their most quintessential album because it has everything they're known for, and in no small measure either. But I like the melodies and beats on Heavy Horses more. I love the disco influence on that one and the production is easier on the ear. Minstrel is their best album like one day a week. When you're in the mood that one hits so hard and never fails. The bass and drums are awesome and Ian really sang well on that one. Thick as a Brick has to be number one though. The parody that was better than the parodied. Such a hero moment for them. Passion Play was my #1 for years and years. I still love it but the moments are fewer and farther between on that one. I enjoy everything up until Ian's vocal collapse. I really can't bear to listen to anything after Under Wraps anymore because it's just too heartbreaking. I prefer to remember him as he was: the true bard and the greatest showman in the history of rock music. The video of Thick as a Brick live at Madison Square Garden where he's wearing that Scottish cape and hat tells you everything you need to know. The twinkle in the eye, the swashbuckling hero and his merry men. No one will ever, ever come close. And by the way, you can show that video to anyone and they'll watch the whole thing.
I can’t completely agree or disagree with your rankings because, to me at least, its like trying to say what my favorite food is. (Its pizza when I’m in a pizza mood, and steak when I’m in the mood for beef, etc…).
A Passion Play War Child Stand Up Broadsword And Beastie Thick as a Brick Aqualung Songs from the Wood Stormwatch Too Old To Rock'n'roll, Too Young To Die Living In The Past One of my all-time favorite songs: Rainbow Blues I really liked The Sax in Passion Play And Warchild ... And I cant recommend anything from 1987 on except for Nightcap. Of course I will have a listen to RökFlöte in a month or so when it comes out..
I was lucky to be born when I was because I saw many great bands Jethro Tull being one of them, I saw them three timees, Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play tours. A Passion play was over the top with their mini movie playing on a big screen WOW it was stunning, I'd never seen such a theatrical performance before. That said, I rarely listen to JT anymore for me they didn't "age well" I can't can't put my finger on why, but I do have fond memories.
This is not directed at Nathan but instead all You Tube reviewers and even the fans like the ones in the comments for this review. Why, why, why doesn’t anyone ever mention Living in the Past AT ALL in their album rankings? It is AWESOME. It was a Tull double album release in ‘72, went gold and peaked at #3 in the US Billboard top 200. It came out on the heels of TAAB and it blew me away. It included a top ten single title track and Wond’ring Again, among other gems. Easily a top 10 release.
@@NathanOnShuffle - Agree. Any thoughts on why every Tull album ranking forgets that it exists? It had many new unreleased songs on it, unlike later compilations, etc. that are rightly left off a proper ranking of album releases. Curious- what made you decide not to include it? Like I said, so many others have done that too.
@@MyVeryHappyDay When I do these rankings I always debate about which albums to include, and usually just default to the traditional studio albums since that is the simplest way to do it. I don't look at compilations or live albums for example because it just can complicate everything, and viewers can have differing opinions on what is worth including or not. So I just simplify it to the albums everybody would agree are part of the studio album "canon" of the band. But I should have at the very least given it a mention, since it is a special case and not really the same as a traditional compilation since it has so much unreleased material as you said. I also had some people say I should have included Ian Anderson's solo albums...so it just becomes difficult to make everybody happy...so I just stick with the simplest core releases (their studio albums as listed either on their Wikipedia discography or on a site I frequent, ProgArchives).
@@NathanOnShuffle - Thanks for the response. Agree on sticking to the studio albums and that LITP is a hybrid. Love Prog Archives - a great source for finding both new and old prog music!
Glad you like these records. I sense you are a fairly recent fan. It’s hard to list them, but I would be broadly with you. It’s a bit different for me. I would see a new album, get Sounds, see concert possibilities etc. in Wembley the drummer threw his stick at my wife! We complained. But then met the band and chatted. Memories ay
I've been a fan of a few of their records for a long while now (Thick as a Brick, Aqualung, Passion Play, etc.) but many of the others I only just started listening to for the purposes of this video. I wish I would have checked them all out sooner!
@@NathanOnShuffle They are very great and important I think. Especially Ian Anderson flute playing. I have seen them live about twenty times. The best was the Broadsword tour. I saw them in Wembley. Extremely loud and rich show; absolutely Tull in every respect. My own flute playing is, though not copying, clearly informed by him. Cheers Peter
My Top Six: 01. Benefit 02. Minstrel In the Gallery 03. Aqualung 04. Stand Up 05. Thick As A Brick 06. A Passion Play My Bottom Six (not in order) A Broadsword and The Beast Catfish Rising J-Tull Dot Com Rock Island The Zealot Gene I also completely understand everyone's distain for "Under Wraps", but I found it to be quite enjoyable as a stand-alone record. Yes, it's not classic Tull, and too much on the 80's electronic wizardry side, but songs like "Paparazzi", "Heat", and "Nobody's Car" made this a fun listen for me. I really “wanted to” like it, so I allowed it to play over and over. Although I didn’t like every song, many of them began to take hold. Classic Tull? Not even close. But a fun album overall? For me that’s a Yes. Speaking of which, most everyone I read or listen to, all like to poo-poo on Yes’s album, “Open Your Eyes”. Utilizing the same train of thought as given above, it does have some great songs on it. For me, “Universal Garden” is excellent. I also like “Fortune Seller” and “No Way We Can Lose” quite a bit. What ruins that album for me is, most of the songs end horribly. It’s like they couldn’t come up with good endings, so they just abruptly ended them. That still bugs me to this day, although I admittedly don’t listen to that album all that often. As I'm sure you know by now, anytime a new album is released by a band that you're a big fan of, you really "Want to" like it, as did I after Steve Hackett left Genesis. But from my ear’s perspective, that was the beginning of a steady decline for me. Yeah, "Duke's Travel's" and a couple of other tracks from that album were darned good, but "Abacab"? For me, that was their lowest period; obviously not counting their debut "Genesis to Revelation". I think "Dodo/Lurker" is the only track on that album I can still listen to, although I don't because I never pull that album/CD out. But I digress. LOL!!!
Great list! And I hope with these videos that it comes across that I think even my 'lowest' ranked albums have great stuff on them, it just doesn't stand out to me as much as the ones I rank higher. Simply based on my own preferences and how I feel about the album during this particular listening cycle while prepping for the show. But, I really love all the artists I rank and appreciate their whole discography. There is always some gems you can find on any album, if you look hard enough 😉
Maybe it's because I'm an old time Tull fan but I really don't care for anything they've done after Broadsword. A couple of decent tracks here and there, albeit most of the good ones previously unreleased stuff, e.g. Rainbow Blues, Summer Day Sands, Strip Cartoon, Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow, etc. That said, and for that reason, by not including them at the top I think you did the best job compared to the other ratings I've seen on You Tube. However, I just don't get a high rating for Heavy Horses from you and others. One great song (Moths) and some really meidocre stuff with trite lyrics and the title of One Brown Mouse plagiarized from One White Duck from Minstrel. There's a reason War Child hit #2 on the charts and HH only #19 - and the reason it even made it that high was because we Tull fanatics were expecting another gem after a long line of gems. 1. Thick as a Brick 2. War Child 3. Minstrel in the Gallery 4. Songs from the Wood 5. Living in the Past 6. A Passion Play 7. Too Old to Rock and Roll 8. Aqualung 9. Benefit 10. The Broadsword and the Beast 11. Stormwatch 12. Stand Up 13. A 14. Heavy Horses
Yes, thank you for the correction! I should have been more careful and spelled out the word in my notes...I'm actually glad to have gotten corrected on this a few times, because it means people got pretty far into the video and were paying close attention! Thanks for watching!
@@NathanOnShuffle Hey. No problem. i watched the video and agree w a lot of your picks. You are more into Prog than I am. For me greatest Tull is Aqualung, side 2 of War Child, and then 1976-1979 - almost everything.
If you can look past instrumentation and production - strictly at the songwriting, I mean - you might find Under Wraps and A more appealing. Please check out Stewart Wood (CZcams channel is his name) who has played 141 Tull-Anderson songs on acoustic guitar to date. All are top quality musicianship. Has really opened my eyes to some of the Tull (like UW) I never cared for much.
Nice analysis. You explain your choices very well. I am one of those Tull fans who doesn't really embrace Passion Play. I agree with you about its overall proggynes but for me what lets it down is the absence of any really memorable melodies. Thick as a Brick on the other hand is as proggy as all hell but also has memorable hooks and melodies which is no doubt why it was retained in the groups setlist for so long. I also have a problem with Aqualung simply because the first time I heard the title track was on the Bursting Out live album and when I heard the studio it seemed fairly week in comparison. There are some great tracks on it but overall the album is seriously let down by a truly terrible production and not even Stephen Wilson's remix can make it sound as powerful as it should. Tull sound so much better on Minstrel in the Gallery which rocks really hard for much of the duration and just sounds great overall. For me they peaked with Songs From The Wood and Heavy Horses which are both near perfect blends of Prog and Folk Rock. My top 5 albums 1.Songs From The Wood 2.Heavy Horses 3/Thick as a Brick 4/Minstrel In The Gallery 5/Bursting Out (Live)
I tuned your it right off as we have another person saying Rock Island is better than Under Wraps Does anyone hear the difference in his voice and content of material. You have no logic as all these other album reviews.
That is fine- I didn't expect everybody would agree with my rankings. I make it clear in the video these are just my preferences and nothing definitive. Hope you find reviews/rankings out there that better match your taste!
@@MyVeryHappyDay I deeply respect every toll fans opinion I would like you to go and watch the concert from Passaic New Jersey in 1984 to promote the under wraps album live I would then like you to go and watch a full concert from the Hamilton Ops arena in 1989 to promote the Rock Island album although it makes no logic and no sense whatever that they're just two albums remember that Ian Anderson has had to go out on the road here after year after year to promote an album and a tour if you hate under wraps and you want to bash it listen to the 1984 concert keep an open mind I want to thank you I really listened to Rock Island again I love heavy-water Arie listen to Rock Island but his voice was shot on that album and tour
@@edwarddehooge4469 - I never bashed Under Wraps. I merely stated that I liked Rock Island a lot more. I was at BOTH live performances of these albums. In fact, I saw the UW show twice in two different parts of the country. As a live performance, the UW show was phenomenal - highly energetic and very skillfully executed. Ian worked his ass off. The RI live show was great too, but in a more eclectic and subdued way. As to the albums, the drum machine is a tough listen on UW, an otherwise very different and very creative Tull album. RI has some great prog moment that tip the scale for me - Ears of Tin, the title track, Another Christmas Song and Strange Avenues. And IA’s voice is hardly “shot” on that recording.
That is a fair criticism. I try to be more conversational in these videos because my hope is that it comes across more natural and interesting. I worry that if I wrote out a more focused and concise script and read it, I would come off boring and robotic. So I just have some notes that I can refer to when I need them but otherwise am largely going off the top of my head with my comments, so it can often end up a bit rambling with me repeating myself at times. I'm very conscious of it and have tried to tighten my videos up as much as I can, but I think it is just my natural conversational style and hard for me to correct. And when I think about it too much, it sort of ruins the fun of filming these videos. But I appreciate the feedback and am glad you liked my list! I'm thankful there is a way for viewers to skip through the video if they get annoyed with my ramblings!
Just a follow-up for anyone interested. I know this is coming way after this video aired, but I have just finished doing my own complete ranking of the Jethro Tull albums, and my list and comments are available on my blog (BB Chronicles) here: bbchron.blogspot.com/2022/06/bbs-album-rankings-jethro-tull.html
Thick As A Brick is their absolute masterpiece!!! Nice job!!!
Disagree. It has a nice intro, but the whole thing seems forced and contrived, including the silly newspaper and the fake story. Ian learned from this project and went onto create A Passion Play, which is far superior without all the nonsense.
Glad to see War Child and Too Old getting appreciated. They are masterful albums.
My Favorite is their Live albums ......
1, Bursting Out
2, Living With The Past 2002
Studio ......
1, Aqualung
2, Thick As A Brick
3, Minstrel In The Gallery
4, Songs From The Wood
5, Benefit
6, Stormwatch
7, Stand Up
8, A Passion Play
9, To Old To Rock 'n' Roll
10, War Child
Everyone has their ranking, all equally relevant but you did a real good job here, well done!
I was really blown away by A Passion Play as well. It's absolutely magnificent! Perhaps critics were starting to turn on concept albums at the time... Even though it did reach Billboards #1
I think I appreciate Too Old to R&R much more than the average musical critics.
Aqualung, Thick as a brick and Catfish rising were always my top 3 Tull records. Until recently when I really discovered Songs from the wood and Stand up and now those two are my favourites. What an incredible band.
Songs From The Wood and Stand Up are currently my faves too
"Let me bring you songs from the woods, to make you feel much better than you can know. Dust you down from tip to toe, show you how the gardens grow, hold steady as you join the chorus if you can, it'll make of you an honest man."
If you have just discovered Songs from the Wood and Stand Up, I would urge you to discover, if you haven't already: War Child, Minstrel in the Gallery, Passion Play, Living in the Past, Benefit, and Too Old to Rock and Roll. If you like those continue on to Broadsword and the Beast and Stormwatch.
Ahh. i'm glad you liked Stormwatch but you neglected to mention my favorite song: Old Ghosts. It brings a tear to my eye each time especially the line about an old dog in pain. The older you get, the more you can relate to that line.
Baker STREET Muse. Not SAINT!!! You said that twice - did you really listen to it or read the lyrics? It is all about the famous London street, not the canonized cake baker. 😂
Great review!! You are a smart dude to embrace prog rock.
Ha!! I guess I need a reminder every so often that I’m human and make mistakes! Hopefully you won’t hold it too much against me 😂.
Thanks for the comment! Glad you appreciated the review (other than the aforementioned flub 😉).
1. Songs from the Wood
2. Minstrel in the Gallery
3. Heavy Horses
4. Benefit
5. Thick as a Brick
6. A Passion Play
7. Aqualung
8. Broadsword and the Beast
9. Crest of a Knave
10. Stormwatch
Excellent analyses and insights on each record, even though my list is different. Well done.
Great work Nathan! I’ve been really looking forward to this video, and you’ve not disappointed. Jethro Tull have an absolutely mammoth discography, so going from only knowing a handful of albums to coming up with a complete ranking that you’re happy with is no mean feat.
As expected, there were moments where I was nodding along in sage agreement (War Child definitely doesn’t get enough love!), and points where I pulled some very odd faces as certain surprises cropped up. I don’t think I could do a complete ranking without putting a lot of time in, but my top 5 has been pretty stable for a while:
1. A Passion Play
2. Minstrel in the Gallery
3. Heavy Horses
4. Thick as a Brick
5. A
Yes, A makes my top 5! I definitely recommend you giving that gorgeous LP behind you a few more spins when you’re next in a Tull mood (which probably won’t be for some time!). A is an incredibly underrated album, IMO; one that’s exponentially grown in my estimation with every single listen. Like you (and most prog fans), I generally prefer a nice warm 70's type production sound, but that slightly clinical 80's quality REALLY suits the songwriting on A. It's a great accompaniment to a chilly November evening.
So who's your next candidate for the album ranking treatment? Zappa? (I jest. Kinda...)
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I felt a bit of pressure on this one because of how extensive the discography is, so it is great to know that it is being appreciated!
I really love your top 5! It does make me want to go and give 'A' some more listens! I did really like it and felt that it was head and shoulders above all of the other 80s and beyond albums, but I'm sure it could rise even higher in my ranking as I give it more listening time!
My plan at the moment is to rank a newer Prog band's catalog (The Flower Kings) and then I'm diving into Marillion (another band I'm less familiar with). I'm hoping also to tackle Genesis sometime down the road (maybe by the end of the year?). It takes me quite some time to put out these videos, so I plan on releasing one every other month or so. But, it is a fun project, even if I have anxiety about how they will be received!
please do rank Ian Anderson's catalogue. Keep up the good work. Thumbing through stacks at the record store when I was 15, I bought "This Was" primarily for the humor in the title...and album artwork. Well, I have never stopped listening & enjoying Anderson's bands' output ... even Steel Monkeys & Budapest ..."and her legs went on forever, like staring up at infinity". :)
Really good Nathan really good . Too old to rockn roll just dosnt gell with me though I recently revisited but it confirmed to me its not a favourite of mine however we all listen to albums in different ways. Please revisit underwraps it's better than you think.But thankyou your delivery is really good I look forward to listening to you more. Tim uk
Great review Nathan! Everyone has different opinions especially about their favorite bands when it comes to ranking discography's. For me Benefit is probably in my top 5. Glad to see A Passion Play ranked so high, probably 4 on my list. Keep up the great work. I really enjoy your Channel!
Thank you! Glad you liked it!
Great ranking Nathan!
I also place Thick as a Brick as number one. I also think their 70's catalogue is their strongest material, though I love their early more bluesy material as well.
Thanks! I probably need to give their early bluesy albums some more listens!
@@NathanOnShuffle Also listen to their "Nothing is Easy" live album from the Isle Of Wight Festival 1970. They were incredible.
Great job Nathan! Agreed with a lot, surprised by some. I got a lot of joy from the 90's stuff in real time, but can also agree with your assessments of those albums in many cases. I even view Under Wraps as just a "Strange Avenue" taken by the band.
Was disappointed by it in real time, but enjoy visiting it now and then. Songs from the wood and Thick as a brick alternate as my favorite albums, depending on mood and amount of time to consume.
Guess I'll have to revisit Too Old to R&R, always appreciated some of it, but would never introduce a new fan to it Lol
Thanks! I’m sure my opinions will continue to shift as I listen to the albums more, but this was just my feeling from this particular listen through. My top six or so are pretty solid though I would guess.
Excellent job! I really enjoy your videos and opinion.
Nice, happily surprised to see young people into this kind of music. Well done!
Nathan’s channel rules.
@@TheProgCorner hi Scot! Waiting for your ranking!
Thank you, I appreciate that!
I really enjoyed your review! It's always interesting to hear others rank Tull albums. Such a diverse and interesting band!
Great video! I heard Passion Play before Thick and I've always preferred it. I guess it would be boring if we all thought the same!
Totally agree!
Amazing job Nathan.
Hi Nathan. First of all there is no ordinary ranking,we all listen differently. My no 1 is AQUALUNG 2 Broadsword. I do have my difficulty with passion play and minstrel though. Great video Nathan 😊
It's fair to mention that on Zealot Gene, Anderson simply can no longer sing. Even with all the studio trickery available, there's no faking it. And he shouldn't be doing it. It just tarnishes his amazing legacy. And as a fan of the band from their inception, I have to say in retrospect, the very best album is Stand Up. An absolutely perfect album.
I agree to the point where I don't even regard it as a Tull album.
Damn good thing you're not in charge.
@peterg5383 Anyone who makes a typo out to be their main point is most certainly not to be taken seriously. And you if you still think Ian can still sing you might want to seriously reconsider commenting on music.
Love War Child. And Skating away is their best song. Agree that Too old to Rock n Roll is an underrated album.
Great thing you do, Nathan! And you are right - it sometimes depends only to the mood of the day which album is on number 10 or on number six or anything.
You explained it clear that some records are your favs and some are not, and i think your favs are the favs to most of us. I would have rated Benefit and Stand Up a little higher, cause i'm into their early sounds. And I would have rated Aqualung a bit lower, maybe i'm tired of it a little bit and of "Locomotive". And i'm glad that you regard "To old to rock..." as one of their ten best albums, i'm with you, especially relating to the Steven Wilson remake of it. And yes, they want to stand outside of the prog movement, smiling at it with irony, but presenting us two or three everlasting classics of it!
1. Songs From The Wood (1977)
2. Aqualung (1971)
3. Thick as a Brick (1972)
4. Heavy Horses (1978)
5. War Child (1974)
6. Stormwatch (1979)
7. Minstrel In The Gallery (1975)
8. The Broadsword and The Beast (1982)
9. Benefit (1970)
10. A (1980)
11. A Passion Play (1973)
12. Stand Up (1969)
13. The Zealot Gene (2022)
14. Roots to Branches (1995)
15. Rock Island (1989)
16. Crest of a Knave (1987)
17. The JT Christmas Album (2003)
18. Too Old to Rock and Roll: Too Young to Die (1976)
19. Catfish Rising (1991)
20. This Was (1968)
21. J-Tull Dot Com (1999)
22. Under Wraps (1984)
Awesome job Nathan. As an old Tull head really enjoyed your presentation. My personal list
1 Thick
2 Aqualung
3 Stand Up
4 Living in the Past
5 A Passion Play
6 Songs from the Wood
7 Benefit
8 Warchild
Followed by Stormwatch, Heavy Horses, Minstrel, Too Old and A
Really great work Nathan!
3-5 years for a successful operation to take hold. You are 10 months old now so, I love your dissertations on prog overall, keep going, one day you'll start seeing results.
Thank you so much! Growth has felt a little slow on the channel lately, so this was really great to hear! It gives me motivation to keep going!
Great job in covering the Tull discography. Overall, your ranking is quite similar to mine (same top 6, although different order) and I agree with much of your comments. I know all of the 70’s albums very well and are some of my all time favorites. However, I have not yet listened to any of the later albums (beyond broadsword), except for crest of a knave and the new one zealot gene. So my list is only of the top 15. Here are my rankings.
1. Thick As A Brick
2. Aqualung
3. Songs From The Wood
Each of these top 3 are absolute masterpieces
4. Minstrel in the Gallery
5. A Passion Play
6. Heavy Horses
7. War Child
8. Stormwatch
9. Stand Up
10. A
All of these top 10 are pretty great albums
11. Too Old To Rock and Roll
12. Benefit
13. Broadsword and the Beast
14. The Zealot Gene
15. Crest of a Knave
Great list! We share a lot in common!
Here's mine...everything after top 5 to Rock Island can likely move from day to day. Below Rock Island they still get a listen but at a much lower frequency. Controversial takes: I rate UW quite highly and have little time for PP.
Brick
Songs From The Wood
Aqualung
Roots
Horses
Minstrel
Stormwatch
Under Wraps
Dot Com
Broadsword
Zealot
Crest
Christmas
Stand Up
Too Old
Benefit
Warchild
Rock Island
Catfish
A
Passion Play
This Was
Great Ranking but You missed Thick as a Brick 2
Yes I understand it is Ian Anderson’s Jethro Tull thick as a brick 2 But I think you’ve got a include it definitely better than some of your lower ranking albums
To me benefit is their best album and then aqualung after that it's a whatever
I think it was more benefit than stand up that was probably the best of the first three albums
I go with the following top 10 (but, then again, I've been a fan since 1970, when my brother gave me Benefit as a Birthday present):
1. Thick as a Brick
2. Aqualung
3. Heavy Horses
4. Stand Up
5. Living in the Past
6. Minstrel in the Gallery
7. Songs from the Wood
8. Benefit
9. A Passion Play
10. Crest of a Knave
You are doing a fine job , I may not agree with all of this but you are most on the spot, music is like food mate, it's subjective
Most rock bands who've been around that long their albums all suffer I always find that the best music by a band is the decade they started in basically in primarily Jethro Tull was at their best in the seventies
I like what you are doing. So far as Tull goes, I have followed them since I was a teen. I have waited out in front of record stores awaiting their next release for years.
.COM has some decent songs on it, but I have to say that "Hot Mango Flush", to my ears anyway, remains Tull's overall worst song ever put on a disc. Maybe a bonus buried somewhere in a boxed set, but OMG... a horrid track 🤯
Greetings Nathan!! Just finished watching this fantastic TULL ranking episode, and although our rankings do differ, I loved hearing your take on the discography, and the love and passion you have for Tull and their music!! I love that you include in your ranking a pseudo disclaimer as to why you feel your rankings may be different than other rankings and/or existing web reviews. We all have different ears and different frames of reference, and that certainly comes into play when listening to any album, by any band, for the first time. I bought "Thick As A Brick" the day it was released, and I can tell you that my friends and I, who listened to it together in my home, soiled our skivvies!!! A Masterpiece, to be sure. Yes, my rankings are different because I was introduced to Tull when I bought the album "Benefit", having no idea who they were. I almost passed on buying it, because I wasn't so sure about "the guy with the flute". I thought, "how rockin' can it be?" Because of that connection, and it being my first Tull album, I have never been able to move it from the ranking of #1. Is some of that nostalgia? Probably. But listening to it today harkens back to a time when I was a musical sponge. I wanted to hear everything, to buy everything, and learn as much as I could about as many bands and genres as possible. So with that said, my "view" of any given album will differ from yours... as it should be. If we all felt the same way about every album, it would be a boring world, and your show would just be a mirror of my taste and opinion, so what good would that be. Regardless of our differing rankings, I love your show, I love hearing your take on these albums, and I love your honesty and openness regarding the music. Keep up the great work! I know it takes a lot of time and energy to put these shows together, and I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that we appreciate you, Jana and Doug very much! I still have some catching up to do, since I'm a newer subscriber, so I best get to it!! Hope you and your beautiful family are enjoying a wonderful Sunday, and that you are all well and happy!! Take care, my friend!!
Greetings!! Thank you so much for this comment- it means a lot to me. I love how you describe how we all have different ears and frames of reference for this music. That was my hope for this channel- to give a unique perspective and spark some healthy discussion about music (and also to recommend new Prog music to people who may not be aware of it).
I'll admit that I can often be sensitive to negative comments. That is why I started putting my disclaimer in front of the ranking videos I do. People would get upset about how I ranked albums and would put me down in the comments (although I'll admit that the positive comments vastly outweigh the negative- I'm just sensitive to it, so the negative ones stand out).
So, I wanted to emphasize in these videos that I don't view my list as a 'definitive' ranking of the albums- it is just in order of my preference based on my own experience with the music. I think it is awesome that everybody is so different and has their own lists based upon their own experiences and tastes. I just hope people come into the discussion with respect for everybody else's list.
Thanks for having the right perspective, and I appreciate your encouragement to me and my family. It helps motivate me to keep putting videos out there! And hopefully over time, I'll get better and better at it!
Passion Play is my absolute favorite! I do love all Tull albums.
Great job!, very thorough and well stated. I also never understood the hate for Too Old to Rock n roll. Not the best but still certainly still very good JT. I also really like War Child, glad to see that rated high. Keep up the great work.
If you really want to delve into APP and TAAB era look to two amazing bootlegs… yes bootlegs! I saw TAAB live two nights and APP six times. With A Passion Play the tour was a multimedia apex for any concert performance. The bootlegs may lack in sound quality but the extended solo pieces during this era and “new music” from Martin Barre and John Evan made the events spectacular. I grew up with Tull from 69 to 75 when i grew away from them. But APP was, is and always will be gladly ranked tied for #1 along with TAAB. Thanks, man!
Great video, was upset when it ended...lol...but true !! Thank you 😃
Great stuff, Nathan! Always appreciate other views...your ranking list has"Too Old To Rock'n Roll"on it on nr7. Well I was a kid when I saw the TV-special from it. Always liked it! It's in my top 10 also. Quiz kid; Salamander( good rousing'folky'stuff); Taxi Grab...nice playing by Martin Barre. My top 3 would be: 1 Aqualung- 2 Thick As A Brick - 3 Songs From The Wood.
Awesome! Great top 3! Thanks!
Scrolling down and reading many of the comments, I am stunned (but not overly surprised) to see some highly negative comments. We are all entitled to our own opinions. Please be respectful of this channel and all the hard work Nathan puts into putting it on for us, for our entertainment, and perhaps some education. In many instances, when I see someone rank and album much higher than I have, it makes me want to go and revisit it again. Sometimes we grab new albums the minute they come out, but based on what we've been listening to most recently, we may not be in the mood or proper frame of mind to enjoy it as we might if we heard it at a different time.
When Supertramp came out with "Even In The Quietest Moments", I bought it, took it home, hated it, and returned it within the half-hour. A few months later I was listening to "Crisis? What Crisis?" and decided I needed to give EITQM's another try. I went back to the same store, bought it again, and absolutely LOVED IT!!! For me anyway, this is a very common scenario. Also, when you're as big a music nut as I am (and I presume we all are or we wouldn't be in here), we tend to acquire far more music in a short period of time than the average consumer. Sometimes we get so many new titles, some of them fall between the cracks. If we buy more than one in a day, and one in particular blows us away, one of the others may not get the attention it deserves. And lastly, when we were in our teens, we had the ability and the time to lay down on our beds with our headphones and truly digest an album, over and over again. In today's 'Amazon' society, we get too much too fast, and have far more responsibility and obligations than back in those teen years, so we don't necessarily have the same time to donate to a single album. Just sayin'.
So when we all post our comments, none of us know where the rest of us fall in that listening timeline. So let's be more respectful and appreciative of what Nathan and his family are doing, and keep any criticisms to ourselves. Thanks!
A great reminder. Thank you!
I am still why no review gives a better rating to Broadsword, it is amazing, that is an amazing album.
1. Thick as a brick 2. Aqualung 3. Songs from the wood 4. Minstrel in the gallery 5. Stormwatch 6. Broadsword 7. Stand up 8. Too old to RnR 9. Benefit 10. Heavy horses 11. War child 12. A The first five rated albums differs on my mood, but definitely Stromwatch is so much underrated while Heavy horses is often too high rated. The same for War child, which is in my opinion a more weak album. All albums after 1982 are very weak because of the voice of I.A., ah, maybe except of the christmas album… but tastes are different…
Side 2 of War Child is a PERFECT album side. 😎
I was seven years old when my father dumped a bunch of brand new cassettes in my lap, American Pie, Captain Beyond, Simon and Garfunkel"s GH, a bunch of others, and this funny looking newspaper covered Thick as a Brick. It mesmerized me, and confused me, and to this day it is one of the most influential musical moments of my life.
Nice ranking but War Child and Too old above Stand Up and Benefit? For me no way. I would strongly recommend that you listen them more. Thanks and keep going
I’m sure the rankings will change as I listen to them more! This was just how I felt from this particular listen!
Thick as a Brick
Minstrel in the Gallery
Heavy Horses
Songs from the Wood
A Passion Play
Pretty sure that would be my top 5. All their 70's albums were great. In a certain way Songs From the Wood is their most quintessential album because it has everything they're known for, and in no small measure either. But I like the melodies and beats on Heavy Horses more. I love the disco influence on that one and the production is easier on the ear. Minstrel is their best album like one day a week. When you're in the mood that one hits so hard and never fails. The bass and drums are awesome and Ian really sang well on that one. Thick as a Brick has to be number one though. The parody that was better than the parodied. Such a hero moment for them. Passion Play was my #1 for years and years. I still love it but the moments are fewer and farther between on that one. I enjoy everything up until Ian's vocal collapse. I really can't bear to listen to anything after Under Wraps anymore because it's just too heartbreaking. I prefer to remember him as he was: the true bard and the greatest showman in the history of rock music. The video of Thick as a Brick live at Madison Square Garden where he's wearing that Scottish cape and hat tells you everything you need to know. The twinkle in the eye, the swashbuckling hero and his merry men. No one will ever, ever come close. And by the way, you can show that video to anyone and they'll watch the whole thing.
I can’t completely agree or disagree with your rankings because, to me at least, its like trying to say what my favorite food is. (Its pizza when I’m in a pizza mood, and steak when I’m in the mood for beef, etc…).
Nathan, I agree about Too Old To R&R. I love that album!
A Passion Play
War Child
Stand Up
Broadsword And Beastie
Thick as a Brick
Aqualung
Songs from the Wood
Stormwatch
Too Old To Rock'n'roll, Too Young To Die
Living In The Past
One of my all-time favorite songs:
Rainbow Blues
I really liked The Sax in Passion Play And Warchild ...
And I cant recommend anything from 1987 on except for Nightcap.
Of course I will have a listen to RökFlöte in a month or so when it comes out..
I was lucky to be born when I was because I saw many great bands Jethro Tull being one of them, I saw them three timees, Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play tours. A Passion play was over the top with their mini movie playing on a big screen WOW it was stunning, I'd never seen such a theatrical performance before. That said, I rarely listen to JT anymore for me they didn't "age well" I can't can't put my finger on why, but I do have fond memories.
This is not directed at Nathan but instead all You Tube reviewers and even the fans like the ones in the comments for this review. Why, why, why doesn’t anyone ever mention Living in the Past AT ALL in their album rankings? It is AWESOME. It was a Tull double album release in ‘72, went gold and peaked at #3 in the US Billboard top 200. It came out on the heels of TAAB and it blew me away. It included a top ten single title track and Wond’ring Again, among other gems. Easily a top 10 release.
Great point- Living in the Past should be considered mandatory Jethro Tull listening 👍
@@NathanOnShuffle - Agree. Any thoughts on why every Tull album ranking forgets that it exists? It had many new unreleased songs on it, unlike later compilations, etc. that are rightly left off a proper ranking of album releases. Curious- what made you decide not to include it? Like I said, so many others have done that too.
@@MyVeryHappyDay When I do these rankings I always debate about which albums to include, and usually just default to the traditional studio albums since that is the simplest way to do it. I don't look at compilations or live albums for example because it just can complicate everything, and viewers can have differing opinions on what is worth including or not. So I just simplify it to the albums everybody would agree are part of the studio album "canon" of the band.
But I should have at the very least given it a mention, since it is a special case and not really the same as a traditional compilation since it has so much unreleased material as you said.
I also had some people say I should have included Ian Anderson's solo albums...so it just becomes difficult to make everybody happy...so I just stick with the simplest core releases (their studio albums as listed either on their Wikipedia discography or on a site I frequent, ProgArchives).
@@NathanOnShuffle - Thanks for the response. Agree on sticking to the studio albums and that LITP is a hybrid. Love Prog Archives - a great source for finding both new and old prog music!
Most regard it as a compilation album, but I agree that it is by far more of a studio album than that Christmas Album thing was.
Enjoyable, insightful reviews... thank you! If you've never heard it you should hear Robert Wyatt's "Rock Bottom", a singular 70s masterpiece!
This Was! 👍
Glad you like these records. I sense you are a fairly recent fan. It’s hard to list them, but I would be broadly with you. It’s a bit different for me. I would see a new album, get Sounds, see concert possibilities etc. in Wembley the drummer threw his stick at my wife! We complained. But then met the band and chatted. Memories ay
I've been a fan of a few of their records for a long while now (Thick as a Brick, Aqualung, Passion Play, etc.) but many of the others I only just started listening to for the purposes of this video. I wish I would have checked them all out sooner!
@@NathanOnShuffle They are very great and important I think. Especially Ian Anderson flute playing.
I have seen them live about twenty times. The best was the Broadsword tour. I saw them in Wembley. Extremely loud and rich show; absolutely Tull in every respect. My own flute playing is, though not copying, clearly informed by him. Cheers
Peter
That’s Baker Street Muse (you said Baker Saint Muse)
My Top Six:
01. Benefit
02. Minstrel In the Gallery
03. Aqualung
04. Stand Up
05. Thick As A Brick
06. A Passion Play
My Bottom Six (not in order)
A
Broadsword and The Beast
Catfish Rising
J-Tull Dot Com
Rock Island
The Zealot Gene
I also completely understand everyone's distain for "Under Wraps", but I found it to be quite enjoyable as a stand-alone record. Yes, it's not classic Tull, and too much on the 80's electronic wizardry side, but songs like "Paparazzi", "Heat", and "Nobody's Car" made this a fun listen for me. I really “wanted to” like it, so I allowed it to play over and over. Although I didn’t like every song, many of them began to take hold. Classic Tull? Not even close. But a fun album overall? For me that’s a Yes.
Speaking of which, most everyone I read or listen to, all like to poo-poo on Yes’s album, “Open Your Eyes”. Utilizing the same train of thought as given above, it does have some great songs on it. For me, “Universal Garden” is excellent. I also like “Fortune Seller” and “No Way We Can Lose” quite a bit. What ruins that album for me is, most of the songs end horribly. It’s like they couldn’t come up with good endings, so they just abruptly ended them. That still bugs me to this day, although I admittedly don’t listen to that album all that often.
As I'm sure you know by now, anytime a new album is released by a band that you're a big fan of, you really "Want to" like it, as did I after Steve Hackett left Genesis. But from my ear’s perspective, that was the beginning of a steady decline for me. Yeah, "Duke's Travel's" and a couple of other tracks from that album were darned good, but "Abacab"? For me, that was their lowest period; obviously not counting their debut "Genesis to Revelation". I think "Dodo/Lurker" is the only track on that album I can still listen to, although I don't because I never pull that album/CD out. But I digress. LOL!!!
Great list! And I hope with these videos that it comes across that I think even my 'lowest' ranked albums have great stuff on them, it just doesn't stand out to me as much as the ones I rank higher. Simply based on my own preferences and how I feel about the album during this particular listening cycle while prepping for the show.
But, I really love all the artists I rank and appreciate their whole discography. There is always some gems you can find on any album, if you look hard enough 😉
@@NathanOnShuffle I could not agree more!! Have a great Sunday!!!
Enjoyed this.
Holy Cow!! Is that a Moron Police cover I see on your wall? Love those guys!!
Yes, I love Moron Police! 'A Boat on the Sea' was one of my favorite albums the year it came out!
Maybe it's because I'm an old time Tull fan but I really don't care for anything they've done after Broadsword. A couple of decent tracks here and there, albeit most of the good ones previously unreleased stuff, e.g. Rainbow Blues, Summer Day Sands, Strip Cartoon, Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow, etc. That said, and for that reason, by not including them at the top I think you did the best job compared to the other ratings I've seen on You Tube. However, I just don't get a high rating for Heavy Horses from you and others. One great song (Moths) and some really meidocre stuff with trite lyrics and the title of One Brown Mouse plagiarized from One White Duck from Minstrel. There's a reason War Child hit #2 on the charts and HH only #19 - and the reason it even made it that high was because we Tull fanatics were expecting another gem after a long line of gems.
1. Thick as a Brick
2. War Child
3. Minstrel in the Gallery
4. Songs from the Wood
5. Living in the Past
6. A Passion Play
7. Too Old to Rock and Roll
8. Aqualung
9. Benefit
10. The Broadsword and the Beast
11. Stormwatch
12. Stand Up
13. A
14. Heavy Horses
These rankings are amazingly far away from mine, a baby boomer.
Nice job mate!
Thanks!
Don't know if someone already brought this to your attention, but it's Street not Saint for Baker St. Muse. 🙂
Yes, thank you for the correction! I should have been more careful and spelled out the word in my notes...I'm actually glad to have gotten corrected on this a few times, because it means people got pretty far into the video and were paying close attention! Thanks for watching!
@@NathanOnShuffle Hey. No problem. i watched the video and agree w a lot of your picks. You are more into Prog than I am. For me greatest Tull is Aqualung, side 2 of War Child, and then 1976-1979 - almost everything.
Finally another person who also enjoys "Hot Mango Flush"!
Lol murd!
If you can look past instrumentation and production - strictly at the songwriting, I mean - you might find Under Wraps and A more appealing.
Please check out Stewart Wood (CZcams channel is his name) who has played 141 Tull-Anderson songs on acoustic guitar to date. All are top quality musicianship. Has really opened my eyes to some of the Tull (like UW) I never cared for much.
That sounds interesting, I’ll have to check it out!
Hate to be picky, Nathan, but it's Baker STREET Muse, not Baker Saint Muse. Otherwise a terrific job. Well done!
Yep, my mistake, sorry! I saw Baker St Muse in my notes and my brain interpreted ‘St’ as Saint for some reason. Oh well! 😬
Yep, my mistake, sorry! I saw Baker St Muse in my notes and my brain interpreted ‘St’ as Saint for some reason. Oh well! 😬
Oh dear. You put "A" above APP! 🤣🤣🤣
Crest of a knave 18th??? I can't continue watching this video.
Songs above aqualung. Cmon bruh
Nice analysis. You explain your choices very well. I am one of those Tull fans who doesn't really embrace Passion Play. I agree with you about its overall proggynes but for me what lets it down is the absence of any really memorable melodies. Thick as a Brick on the other hand is as proggy as all hell but also has memorable hooks and melodies which is no doubt why it was retained in the groups setlist for so long. I also have a problem with Aqualung simply because the first time I heard the title track was on the Bursting Out live album and when I heard the studio it seemed fairly week in comparison. There are some great tracks on it but overall the album is seriously let down by a truly terrible production and not even Stephen Wilson's remix can make it sound as powerful as it should. Tull sound so much better on Minstrel in the Gallery which rocks really hard for much of the duration and just sounds great overall. For me they peaked with Songs From The Wood and Heavy Horses which are both near perfect blends of Prog and Folk Rock.
My top 5 albums
1.Songs From The Wood
2.Heavy Horses
3/Thick as a Brick
4/Minstrel In The Gallery
5/Bursting Out (Live)
I tuned your it right off as we have another person saying Rock Island is better than Under Wraps
Does anyone hear the difference in his voice and content of material. You have no logic as all these other album reviews.
That is fine- I didn't expect everybody would agree with my rankings. I make it clear in the video these are just my preferences and nothing definitive. Hope you find reviews/rankings out there that better match your taste!
Rock Island kills UW, Eddie. I won’t tell you why, so that you can continue depriving yourself of a good opinion.
@@MyVeryHappyDay Thank you for getting back to me. I love the song Heavy Water. Thank you for your rankings.
@@MyVeryHappyDay I deeply respect every toll fans opinion I would like you to go and watch the concert from Passaic New Jersey in 1984 to promote the under wraps album live I would then like you to go and watch a full concert from the Hamilton Ops arena in 1989 to promote the Rock Island album although it makes no logic and no sense whatever that they're just two albums remember that Ian Anderson has had to go out on the road here after year after year to promote an album and a tour if you hate under wraps and you want to bash it listen to the 1984 concert keep an open mind I want to thank you I really listened to Rock Island again I love heavy-water Arie listen to Rock Island but his voice was shot on that album and tour
@@edwarddehooge4469 - I never bashed Under Wraps. I merely stated that I liked Rock Island a lot more. I was at BOTH live performances of these albums. In fact, I saw the UW show twice in two different parts of the country. As a live performance, the UW show was phenomenal - highly energetic and very skillfully executed. Ian worked his ass off. The RI live show was great too, but in a more eclectic and subdued way.
As to the albums, the drum machine is a tough listen on UW, an otherwise very different and very creative Tull album. RI has some great prog moment that tip the scale for me - Ears of Tin, the title track, Another Christmas Song and Strange Avenues. And IA’s voice is hardly “shot” on that recording.
Nice list, but I found myself skipping ahead due to the long- winded, rather rambling and redundant comments.
That is a fair criticism. I try to be more conversational in these videos because my hope is that it comes across more natural and interesting. I worry that if I wrote out a more focused and concise script and read it, I would come off boring and robotic.
So I just have some notes that I can refer to when I need them but otherwise am largely going off the top of my head with my comments, so it can often end up a bit rambling with me repeating myself at times.
I'm very conscious of it and have tried to tighten my videos up as much as I can, but I think it is just my natural conversational style and hard for me to correct. And when I think about it too much, it sort of ruins the fun of filming these videos.
But I appreciate the feedback and am glad you liked my list! I'm thankful there is a way for viewers to skip through the video if they get annoyed with my ramblings!
@@NathanOnShuffle Rambling and repeating is just as boring as robotic. Just trying to help.
@@Dex619 ha ok, my style just isn’t for you then. No biggie! I’m comfortable with who I am and how I do my videos 😎
stop talking
😂
Just a follow-up for anyone interested. I know this is coming way after this video aired, but I have just finished doing my own complete ranking of the Jethro Tull albums, and my list and comments are available on my blog (BB Chronicles) here:
bbchron.blogspot.com/2022/06/bbs-album-rankings-jethro-tull.html
Thank you so much for sharing! That was an incredible write-up on their albums! Great list!