Jethro Tull: The Château D’Hérouville Sessions 1972

Famously, after completing Thick as a Brick in 1972, Jethro Tull decamped to the studios at Château D’Hérouville near Paris to record another conceptual double album. The comedy of errors that ensued led them to refer later to the venue as “Chateau D’isaster” and the album was scrapped before they started afresh elsewhere to produce 1973’s A Passion Play. The Château D’Hérouville sessions have been released a few times over the years, and this nice 2-LP set includes the Steven Wilson mix of the tapes, previously included on the 2014 Passion Play: An Extended Performance box set. Added to those 16 tracks there are four more, the “Chateau D’isaster Tapes” from the 1988 20 Years of Jethro Tull set, “Only Solitaire” and “Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day” which both appeared on 1974’s War Child and “The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles” which actually made it onto A Passion Play in ’73. So, for Jethro Tull diehards, there’s nothing new here except the context. But that in itself means quite a lot, as it turns what have usually been disparate tracks into a detailed record of a troubled period in the band’s history which in retrospect seems wildly creative for something that was essentially written off.

The band salvaged bits and pieces that they had written for A Passion Play, so naturally there’s a little crossover, but the sound is quite different. These sessions are notable for the heaviness of Martin Barre’s guitar and the relative scarcity of Ian Anderson’s flute passages, although the playful opening track, “The Big Top” is an exception. What is immediately clear though is that Wilson’s mix is typically immaculate. As “The Big Top” segues into the folky “Scenario” and that leads into the forceful “Audition,” the fact that the band scrapped these tracks seems ridiculous. Ian Anderson’s voice has rarely sounded better and the way the Anderson/Martin Barre/John Evan/Jeffrey Hammond/Barriemore Barlow lineup makes complex, nuanced music feel natural and flowing is almost unrivalled in progressive rock. The major caveat of course, is that of all the great progressive rock acts, Jethro Tull may be the most of an acquired taste. Anderson’s nasal, often accusatory tones and sometimes arch, but always articulate lyrics are not, to say the least, for everybody, and neither are the flowing but unpredictable compositions. On “Audition” the band sounds almost Zappa-esque in its virtuoso jazz-rock attack, and Martin Barre in particular rarely sounded better. The delicate version of “Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day” on disc one of this set has long been preferred by some fans to the War Child version and this album gives a chance to make a direct comparison; it feels lighter and more nimble and again, Anderson is in fine voice, making the decision to scrap it mystifying. Perhaps it was just the association with the generally chaotic, unhappy time the band was having, but whatever, their discontent never seems to have made it onto the tapes, unless Barre’s unusually aggressive tone on the more rock-ish songs is a mark of his frustration. Overall, most of the album’s tracks, including the epic, jazz-inflected two-part “Critique Oblique” feel easily as good as parts of Thick as a Brick and superior to the final Passion Play.

Of course, it’s not all great; “Sailor” is one of several songs that feels a little too repetitive for its own good, but the sound is sparkling and the performance itself couldn’t really be much better. “Animelee” parts one and two have a lilting, medieval feel and are impressive in their fluidity and cleverness, but they also raise the question; who really wants to hear this kind of light, complex Muzak? Plus, sometimes – and this is not just a Jethro Tull issue – more just isn’t better; a case can just about be made for the inclusion of the two versions of “Skating Away…” but although there are differences between the two versions of the excruciating satiric-comic children’s story style song “The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles,” neither is less tedious than the other and its hard to imagine anyone not skipping the second. Obviously, true Tull fans have a high tolerance for the band’s more whimsical side, but it can be annoying. “Left Right” is brilliantly performed, but the intro – 30 seconds or so of whining infant noises – is exceptionally off-putting and when the song proper begins, Anderson’s overly playful wordplay and some silly jazzy trills make it one of the album’s more challenging songs, though the guitars are pleasingly heavy. Equally aggressive but much better, Martin Barre’s gritty bluesy guitar is the most notable feature of “No Rehearsal,” which is about as heavy as Jethro Tull got in this period. But no matter how punishing the sound, Wilson’s miraculous mix ensures that the instrumental weight never becomes dense or claustrophobic or bottom heavy. In fact, one of the unforeseen joys of the sessions is Barlow’s bass drum, whose satisfying thud throughout the album is truly something to behold. But while The Château D’Hérouville Sessions features the Tull at their heaviest, it also showcases some of their most delicate playing. “Only Solitaire” has some of the prettiest acoustic guitar you’ll ever hear, alongside some of Anderson’s most deliberately obnoxious – though perfectly judged – lyrics which blend realism and whimsy in a way that has been much imitated but rarely with much success.

Essentially, The Château D’Hérouville Sessions 1972 is an album from Jethro Tull’s golden era, with all of the pluses and minuses that entails. It’s brilliant, clever, technically stunning, sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes genuinely funny, sometimes childish and immensely irritating. It’s not that the band or Ian Anderson had no sense of quality control; it’s that this is what he and they wanted. Which means that if you love Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play but have never heard these tracks before, you’re in for a treat because this is more of the same. It’s equally accomplished and easily as inspired as A Passion Play, although it falls a little short of the sheer inventiveness of Thick as a Brick. And what is better is that, in this form, rather than being appended to a classic album, it has its own shape, character and sound. When Jethro Tull were bad they could be boring, but in the first half of the 1970s they were never really bad.