Homo Erraticus

Homo Erraticus

Ian Anderson's music follows a familiar schematic for anyone who grew up loving the sounds of Jethro Tull. Anderson’s flute solos and his decision to accentuate the key riffs in these songs are immediately recognizable to anyone who’s ever heard “Aqualung.” The backing band features strong musicians who supply Hammond organ and piano (John O’Hara), brawny electric guitars (Florian Opahle), and complicated rhythms (bassist David Goodier, drummer Scott Hammond); they follow Anderson through ambitious twists and turns. The two and a half minutes of “New Blood, Old Veins” make a tougher assignment than being in a bar band playing the blues. The 15 songs here tell the tale of Thick as a Brick’s Gerald Bostock having discovered a manuscript from the '20s written by a British soldier named Ernest T. Parritt, who was suffering from malaria. Parritt’s writings tell the history of northern Europe from the Mesolithic era to his own and into the future. Bostock takes these writings and fashions them into lyrics that are then sung by the real-life Ian Anderson, whose prog-rock experience comes in mighty handy turning these ideas into songs.

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