Quietly toiling away on album after album, Jethro Tull appear to be single-handedly keeping archaic progressive rock tones alive. In fact, at this point, it has become regressive rock. Genres move on and develop for good reason. To plough away at the same takings means the artist, not the listener, has failed to grow. But the opening flute on Ginnungagap, a track title that must have been ripped from a forgotten cartoon show villain, is very space-age. Just for a moment, it feels like Jethro Tull has moved their sound on. That flute focus will inspire some real love for those that are clinging to the long-form survival of this rock band, but does little else to move the band’s sound on to anything they have not done before.
As innovative as Ginnungagap appears to be in relation to the sound of Jethro Tull, it is not pushing that much further in the genre itself. Nordic elements are the key to this one. Still, pairing that with the prog rock notions Jethro Tull are best known for is a recipe for a solid, if forgettable, track. Those instrumentals do much of the heavy lifting here, because the rest of the track, particularly the lyrics, are uninspired. Even if the vocal strengths of Ian Anderson are still there and his flute playing is on par with that of Locomotive Breath from all those years ago, the prog rock genre still stumbles at the same writing blunders it always has.
Attempting to make rock-heavy notions of the birth of the universe, the monumental structure of it all, bleed down into flesh and frost, the Nordic relevancies of Ymir and the scope of it all, is disastrous. It is hard to get all that excited about consistency when Jethro Tull has maintained a steady stream of this quality for years and has still failed to push back against their lyrical failings. Appealing to those that still wear leather jacket cut-offs with Guns and Roses badges sewn into them, to those who think the index and pinky-led rock symbol is still of relevance, Jethro Tull shall serve them well. Ginnungagap is a fine track, an absolutely fine piece of music that will be shortlisted as one of the greatest things for those that are stuck in their prog-rock ways. The Nordic theme feels a tad embarrassing when all it can do is rehash a story told in literature, film and music for decades now.
But it is not up to Jethro Tull to move that message on. They are not moving on the genre either, why move on the message? A standard Jethro Tull piece is in the hands of listeners here. It notes nothing of excessive style nor of flawed musical pace. Its lyrical presence is, by and large, very dull. But everything around that is classic Jethro Tull. It will win over those who still enjoy settling into Anderson’s work, it is just a shame there is little challenge to it. Myth and legends hinted at, rather than specified. Everything within Ginnungagap feels broad. It is not mysterious or envisioning of a particular point, it is just a rehashing of entry-level mythology. Jethro Tull should be offering much more than those basic principles at this stage. Ginnungagap, a translation to yawning void. Jethro Tull offers a yawn here, that’s for sure.
