Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Music should find a way to always surprise you, even if it by the margin of a raised eyebrow rather than the full overblown slap of connectivity that you hope for.
There is a lot to take in when confronted by the appearance of Jethro Tull’s latest album, RökFlöte, so much to unpack that whilst the idea should come as no surprise, the delivery is one of quietly drawn respect and admiration for pulling off the spectacle. Not only is it the shortest turn around in between albums, coming hot on the heels of 2022’s The Zealot Gene, for 40 years, its central device is that which keenly involves itself in ways that hark back to the band’s early concept albums to which they made, in their own surprised way, a huge impression on the Progressive genre.
To create an album around a central theme is thrilling enough, to tackle it with the urgency of the flute and give it a sense of direction in the way of fundamentally explaining the old Norse religion, is to be appreciated, and whilst some might shun the adoption of the pagan dealings involved, for others such a recognition of the stories and tales, of the ways that many Britons have in their D.N.A. across thousands of years, it can hardly be a surprise that the beauty of it thrills you…and yet it absolutely does, and it does it with typical Jethro Tull aplomb.
Jethro Tull’s 23rd studio album is one of satisfaction and persistence, the longevity of Ian Anderson as one of music’s most entertaining and thoughtful ambassadors has never been in doubt, and yet RökFlöte gives another reason to celebrate the uniqueness of the way the man and the band’s collective mind works.
Across tracks such as Ginnungagap, The Feathered Consort, Wolf Unchained, Cornucopia, and The Navigators, Jethro Tull immerse themselves in the folklore and proper use of the umlaut with sincerity and a delivery that attains depths of persuasion with ease.
The release may flummox some, but it will certainly charm those willing to look beyond the apparent narrative and who are able to seek meaning under the waves of the seas that separate time. For time and faith are ever flexible, they are as fluid as the water that brings new ideas and much required change to the shore; and in that approach the scale of the magic in the flute and melodies created by other instruments stand tall.
Ian D. Hall