Jethro Tull
Under Wraps

THE REVIEW

NAKED LADIES (LADIES?) BURSTING OUT OF LARGE PAPER BAGS, ASTRONAUT MOONWALKING ON STAGE, DISTURBING DRUM MACHINE RHYTHMS, 80'S KEYBOARDS GALORE AND VOCAL CRISIS IN THE MAKING. THESE WERE KEY INGREDIENTS OF THE UNDER WRAPS TOUR OF 1984.

These are the notes from my CD with which Ian Anderson introduces us to what I consider a unique case. An album, in fact, the most controversial album of the group, but one that everyone agrees upon (agrees that it's a lousy record), there would be so much to say, some consider it awful, some obscene, some don't even mention it in the discography, but is it really a poor work? Let's talk about it:

It’s not a classic, neither of Jethro Tull nor of rock itself, rather, it’s a Techno-Rock experiment and should be understood as such. What to criticize about this album? The DRUM MACHINE? I don't think a real drummer would have added anything since the Anderson-Vettese duo deliberately opted here for a series of sounds as cold as a freezer.

The composition of the tracks? Not that either, just look at the performers playing it, and then these songs worked live like a charm, so?

I’ll try to offer an explanation: I think this type of sounds and music, in general, can only convey so much, nor can it be exploited more than within certain limits. In other words, Jethro Tull did nothing wrong, on the contrary, if composed or commissioned by someone else, this album would have been much worse. Additionally, electronics is a very distant territory, as far removed as possible for fans of the band used to progressive rock and the singer-songwriter style of some previous songs.

The gestation:

In 1982, 23-year-old Peter John Vettese (of Italian origin) joined the group, a young man full of energy and talent who in the BROADSWORD album shifted the sound towards synthesizers and recalls his entry by telling how he responded to an ad from the group that read: INTERNATIONAL ROCK GROUP SEEKS KEYBOARDIST. Vettese (considered a nobody at the time of Jethro Tull's classic achievements) didn’t know much about their music, but he got the job by improvising with great spontaneity on the pieces, remembering with much irony how even today he is credited with destroying the band's sound with his synthesizers. In fact, at the time of UNDER WRAPS, unlike his predecessor Eddy Jobson, he takes not only one hand but both, though he himself admits that both Anderson and Barre were aware and agreed on all the new sonic lines the group was taking under his guidance. What they perhaps didn’t know was the reaction from both fans and critics, maybe Ian Anderson, like a good opportunist, sensed something since for the occasion he shared the credit with Vettese as well as Barre, (a recognition he never gave to other members even in better days). Given Anderson's interest in new technologies, he tries with Vettese a solo album in duo, entirely made with computer programming and without string instruments or drums: WALK INTO THE LIGHT, most of the music is composed by the keyboardist, for which Anderson decides to make a similar album with the rest of the band.

The songs:

If Broadsword had something pompously melodic (perhaps too much), here the songs are lean and rhythmic, as well as brisk, but anything but simple; describing one is like describing them all in the end, there isn’t a real drop, however, Lap of Luxury which opens the album really hits, European Legacy is overwhelming and engaging, Saboteur is flashy and rhythmic, we like it with that double kick work simulated on the drum machine, and then Later That Same Evening, Tundra, Apogee (this really gets inside you), are all songs that work without disturbing the great echoes of the past.

The musicians:

Ian Anderson has a sharper voice here than in Broadsword, and beyond that, he attempts some really peculiar vocals typical of youthful Synth Pop (listen to Tundra for example). On the CD notes, Anderson doesn't clearly state that he was already losing his voice during those concerts, and not at the end of the tour, so much so that Vettese himself admitted that the more Anderson was aware of it, the more it affected him character-wise, which was why the keyboardist, understanding the mood, decided to leave the band, only to return as a guest in ROCK ISLAND. Martin Barre, however, a delightfully measured guitarist (a real number 1 in technique fantasy and taste, without him, they wouldn’t have been JETHRO) reaches the pinnacle here, an exceptional guitarist, just watch his live performances from those concerts, but it’s also the last album where he remains spontaneous and won't be dominated by guitar effects that from CREST OF A KNAVE onwards will slightly (negatively) change his style, ranging from hard sounds like ZZ TOP to long sounds with accompanying whistles. Dave Pegg remains the greatest bassist of the group, if on the STORMWATCH tour he played very well live but got the sound wrong (live, his sound has always been his drawback) his studio work from A onwards will be perfect, this record confirms it, Pegg, a bassist born as a mandolinist, plectrum-dependent, gives a very hard sound and attack to the band, especially in the hammerings. It's strange that he, the folk soul and heart of Fairport Convention, would manage the most electronic era of Jethro Tull. Peter John Vettese, instead, a Jazz-Rock extraction with rigorous classical studies behind him will become an expert in electronics and various synthesizers, and in Jethro Tull of that period much of that contribution will be his, in my opinion, Anderson would be wrong to let him go like that due to his compositional skills that his successors will not have. Noteworthy during that tour was his solo duel with Doanne Perry (support drummer for the Tour) reprising the theme of FLY BY NIGHT from the album WALK INTO THE LIGHT.

A musician's opinion on the record:

Ian Anderson speaks very well of it, considering it a good product, perhaps embodying all his naivety of the moment caught up in those new sounds and that new way of working. Barre instead praises it as the best of his discography and considers the track "Paparazzi" the best piece he has ever worked on. Barre recalls how he found himself in great difficulty managing the various machinery with all that technology, skillfully programmed.

The Album live:

Not much considered in the years following Anderson's vocal surgery, perhaps because the pieces were difficult to reprise vocally, at the time, Apogee, Later That Same Evening, more Under Wraps 1, and at the end of the concert also European Legacy were performed, later Under Wraps Part 2 in the 90s, but also Paparazzi in instrumental version, during the Roots to Branches tour Later That Same Evening returned but to my knowledge always INSTRUMENTAL...

Considerations:

The last, (attention) Project of the band, from CREST OF A KNAVE onward, even increasing in compositional quality, the band would add nothing, becoming a cover band of itself, recycling the past, which is why I rate this as the last important work of the group.