Homo Erraticus (2014)Part One: Chronicles
Doggerland (7000 BCE)
4:20Heavy Metals (750 BCE – 43 CE)
1:29Enter the Uninvited (43 CE – 410 CE – 1960!)
4:12Puer Ferox Adventus (313 – 600 CE)
7:11Meliora Sequamur (1100s)
3:32The Turnpike Inn (1750)
3:08The Engineer (1847)
3:12The Pax Britannica (1815 – 1914)
3:05Part Two: Prophecies
Tripudium Ad Bellum (1914 – 1939)
2:48After These Wars (1950s)
4:28New Blood, Old Veins (1960s)
2:31Part Three: Revelations
In for a Pound (2013)
0:36The Browning of the Green (2014)
4:05Per Errationes Ad Astra (2024)
1:33Cold Dead Reckoning (2044)
5:28----------
Ian Anderson - Lead and Backing Vocals, Flute, Acoustic Guitar
Florian Opahle - Electric Guitar
John O'Hara - Piano, Organ, Keyboards, Accordion
David Goodier - Bass Guitar
Scott Hammond - Drums, Percussion
Ryan O'Donnell - Additional Vocals
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The final Ian Anderson/Jethro Tull studio album thus far is another concept album, something of an offshoot from the
Thick as a Brick albums. The lyrics are once again attributed to Gerald Bostock, the literary child prodigy who wrote
Thick as a Brick and whose many possible futures were explored in
Thick as a Brick 2. He is now in his fifties, and has discovered in his town's bookstore a "dusty, unpublished manuscript, written by local amateur historian Ernest T. Parritt, (1873 -1928)" which is entitled either "Homo Britanicus Erraticus" or "Homo erraticus (The St Cleve Chronicles)".
Homo Erraticus is Latin for "wandering man". I mention that because apparently I never progressed beyond my adolescence in the 1970's, which means that I cannot take anything with the word "homo" in the title seriously, and if you're like me (which is a frightening thought, actually) you need to have some kind of definition or explanation, otherwise all you can think of is why in the hell anyone would name an album this way.
Anyway, Gerald Bostock is intrigued by the illustrated manuscript he has found, which appears to be some kind of historical document, summarizing key events in Britain's history, and apparently some prophecies as well, thus the years which accompany the track titles, including future dates.
I haven't commented much on the lyrics for any Jethro Tull or Ian Anderson albums in this discography for the simple reason that I don't have most of these albums in physical form, and can't seem to concentrate on the lyrics when I'm listening to them. I always end up distracted by the music, and while certain phrases jump out at me from time to time, the only time I really notice the lyrics is during those times or when Ian does the thing where he repeats the song's title over and over, with different phrasing and inflections each time. He hasn't done that in a while, though, which means that I've just been enjoying the music. And the music here is great. I like it better than
Thick as a Brick 2 and put it nearly on par with the original
Thick as a Brick. I guess I'm just a sucker for Scottish folk music in a Rock and Roll setting featuring Ian Anderson's damned flute. I could put on pretty much anything by Jethro Tull or Ian solo and just let it play, and have done so many times.
I think the music here is terrific. If this ends up being Ian's final opus, he's gone out on a high note. According to AllMusic.com, this album is "as close to 1970s progressive rock as is possible in 2014". Okay, I don't quite agree with that, but that's only because I'm aware of a lot of contemporary neo-prog, much of which recalls 70's prog, in attitude if not always in sound. This album does, however, come pretty close to 1970s Jethro Tull. If we had Martin Barre on guitar rather than Florian Opahle, we'd be even closer, but Opahle does a perfectly fine job here. John O'Hare is no John Evan on keyboards, either, but I don't think he's trying to be. The main difference between Jethro Tull and solo Ian Anderson may be that, though Ian pretty much wrote everything and called all the shots, with Jethro Tull each of the musicians was given some latitude in their contributions, whilst on the solo albums, everyone just plays what Ian has written. That's an oversimplification, though, or at least I'd hope so. Ian is a well-known control freak, but I would think that he'd want his supporting musicians to put at least a little bit of themselves into their performances, and not literally just play the notes they've been given. But I honestly don't know.