hobbit

It's short but conveys the message perfectly.

a truly indecent cover...a graphic straight out of 80s trash

3 not really. The stars are a pretty subjective topic; for the most part, this album is wonderful, so it's a 5. I can understand not giving a 5 to an album that hasn't "made history," but this? Why a 3 then? Not even a 4?

"Jethro Tull, distinguishing features: Ian Anderson"... oh come on, I'll give you 5...

Yes, you hit the nail on the head with both sides of the album, the raw (great definition) and gritty one and the bucolic-relaxed one. The highest points of the album are, in my opinion, the guitar solo of Aqualung followed by the sudden calm (acoustic + whining voice), the start of Locomotive after the jazz piano intro, and the epic intertwining of guitar and flute before Ian's solo in My God, where they reach heights that I do not hesitate to call "orgasmic."

Well done. Fantastic album.

Yes, you’re right... they may seem like obvious topics, but they’re not. However, we need to carefully check what the line is between genuine interest and commercial motivation... I mean, I don’t know if it applies to Ben Harper (I repeat: I don’t know him and I don’t judge him), but sometimes it’s easy to say "war is unjust," it doesn’t take much, and even if it wants to seem like a protest, a stance against something, in reality, it’s just riding a wave with an easy monetary return. One thing is "Masters of War" in the 60s, when no one had done it yet, another thing is now, where public opinion finds these reflections quite obvious and where freedom of opinion is very broad. Just an observation. Nothing against what you said.

What does "the scandal of Hurricane New Orleans" mean? And anyway, the protest against Bush and the war in Iraq is already old news. It's hard to be more predictable than that when discussing these issues... come on, don't these artists know any other topics? Oh, and I haven't read the lyrics or listened to the album, but if you say it talks about these things, then it's a given (of course, you'll tell me that we need to see HOW they say certain things, which in the end is what really matters).

But why do you all have it in for Puny? You all seem so biased... I mean, it’s true that he has this obsession with always finding the negative side of an artist or tearing apart albums that speak for themselves just by existing (it’s too easy to shoot down certain things, come on), but: 1) the criticism here isn’t taken for granted like in other cases nor is it necessarily contrarian; 2) the dialogue is absolutely awesome.

Great review, but I might prefer Alien soundtracks... I explained why in the review of that album. However, I'm not voting for the album because it's very complicated, and I want to listen to it a few more times; for Alien, it was love at first sight.