When I heard in 2021 that 'Jethro Tull' was going to release an album, I already thought it was a joke (the last studio recording 'The Jethro Tull Christmas Album' from 2003), then, as they said when 'Ian Anderson' and his old fellow travelers came out 'Aqualung', 'The Zealot Gene' is now available, in the stores of your best record stores. Admittedly, the line up is made up of the artists who accompany Ian in his solo career but, make no mistake, we find this so characteristic style that has accompanied us throughout several decades and whose first album 'This Was' is already a long way off. This new opus offers a dozen rather short titles and the theme revolves around myths and biblical history.
From the first title 'Mrs. Tibbets', if you liked the songs of the 70s, you will absolutely not be out of place because we find these cheerful and melodic folk atmospheres of 'Ian Anderson' with this song and this flute that we could recognize among a thousand and this magnificent begins bodes well for the future. We then let ourselves be carried away by the light 'Jacob's Tales', the melancholy 'Mine Is The Mountain' magnified by a sober and deep vocal performance by Ian who lulls us to the rhythm of harmonious melodic lines. The title song returns to 'Jethro Tull' pure juice with this enthusiasm and this lightness brought by the flute which does good and which transmits all this cheerfulness to us. The sequel is in the image of this beginning of the album with compositions all as endearing as each other and we could quote them all because they all make us go back in our memory all these moments of listening to the first 'Jethro Tull ' already fifty years ago like 'Barren Beth, Wild Desert John' which could very well have been part of a 'Too Old to Rock'n'Roll: To Young to Die!' or even the rhythmic 'The Betrayal of Jushua Kynde' which instantly starts the headbanging machine, the album ending with a remarkable 'The Fisherman of Epheus' which offers us a last melody very pleasant to the ear.
In short, no need to add more, 'Ian Anderson', with his group of talented artists, takes us back to an era that highlighted this happy carefreeness highlighted in the first albums of 'Jethro Tull ' and, even if the titles remain quite direct and the progressive side is not particularly highlighted, 'The Zealot Gene' should undoubtedly appeal to historical fans of the English but should also appeal to a wider audience who likes beautiful melodies tinged with a light and poetic folk... | |
