Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson says his new album ‘Curious Ruminant’ is the most personal record he has ever made.
The 77-year-old musician – who has been the flautist and vocalist of the prog rock band since 1967 – took a new approach to songwriting on the LP and took a deep dive into his “own personal things”.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz, he said: “My points of view and my feelings are expressed much more than they would normally be in most of the lyrics I’ve written in my life. There’s a lot more I/me pronouns than usual. Usually it’s he/she/it. This one’s a kind of an I/me album. And yet, ironically, it’s very much a band album, it’s not a solo album.”
‘Curious Ruminant’ is Jethro Tull’s third album in three years, following 2023’s ‘RökFlöte’ and 2022’s ‘The Zealot Gene’. It is the band’s 24th studio album, a run of records which began in 1968 with ‘This Was’.
The final track of ‘Curious Ruminant’ becomes very personal, as Anderson diverts from the expected with a spoken word entry. ‘Interim Sleep’ is based on a poem he wrote a few years ago “for somebody bereaved”.
He said: “In that poem, I was talking from beyond to the person, saying, ‘Hey, cheer up’, and giving some positive thoughts about death not being final. We will be together in another life.”
Anderson deliver the lyrics in a spoken-word format because it “seemed more appropriate to the subject material” than a melody would be.
He explained: “I needed something a bit quieter on the end of the album. With that in mind, I decided it would be a spoken word piece that would be rather intimate, and I based it on that poem I had written.”
Anderson – who is the only constant member of Jethro Tull – has been a prolific songwriter over seven decades, just don’t ask him to write a love song.
He said: “I don’t feel in any way compelled to do what I’m not really good at, which is writing love songs. Probably from my art school background, I’m more of a pictorial musician in the sense that I work from images, things I remember from visual experiences … I like to paint people in a landscape. I like to see people in a context.”
That doesn’t mean Anderson doesn’t see the value in writing and singing about love.
He said: “That makes up 95 per cent of what song lyrics are about. From Shakespeare’s sonnets through to today, it’s the human condition and the sense of emotions. It’s about being in love or out of love.”
Jethro Tull’s ‘Curious Ruminant’ is out now.
The band head out on their European tour in April with shows scheduled until December.
Go to Jethrotull.com for more information and tickets.