Jethro Tull: Aqualung Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.5

Jethro Tull: Aqualung Blu-ray Movie Review

You might never come up for air once you dive into this impressive new set.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 4, 2011

My only excuse is that I was head over heels in love with Brazilian jazz growing up and therefore largely uninterested and/or unaware of classic rock, and so when a buddy of mine said, “I’m going to a Jethro Tull concert,” my response (as horribly embarrassing as it is to admit it now) was, “Who’s he?” My friend looked aghast, as if I had just beamed down from some far off planet, and dragged me into his house where I spent the next couple of hours being inundated with Tull’s music. I was an instant fan. Jethro Tull never quite fit the rock mold back in the day. Ian Anderson’s decidedly over the top performance style, more Court Jester at times than outright Rock Star, as well as Tull’s eclectic approach to styles and instrumentation made the band something of an iconoclast, which may account for the fact that despite decent success in its early years, it wasn’t until its fourth album, Aqualung, that the band really catapulted into being an international sensation, with Top 40 hits, rampant tours, and a string of bestselling albums to its credit which followed in Aqualung’s fairly considerable wake. Fans have argued virtually from the moment Aqualung was released as to whether or not it’s a concept album, but in the long run that debate really doesn’t matter and it doesn’t address the salient point about Aqualung, namely that it’s an incredibly diverse, impeccably written, played and sung album that shows an astonishing virtuosity and recreates modern rock in often unexpected and astonishingly innovative ways. Jethro Tull may in fact be a “they” and not a “he,” but led by the inestimable Ian Anderson, and with a short-lived but incredible array of supporting musicians (Clive Barker, Drums; Martin Barre, Guitar; John Evan, Keyboards; Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, Bass), Aqualung remains one of the hallmarks of Tull’s long career, and it still is the group’s bestselling album after decades of recording and performing.

EMI is stretching consumers’ wallets with a number of high profile deluxe releases lately, including two Pink Floyd “Immersion Editions,” The Dark Side Of The Moon, which I reviewed here a few weeks ago and Wish You Were Here which I’ll be reviewing within the next day or two, as well as this new Jethro Tull release, with more evidently in the pipeline due for 2012 street dates. Are these incredibly lavish sets worth it? That’s obviously going to be up to the individual consumer and their tolerance for plopping down a Benjamin (or more) for each of these, but the fact is undeniable that EMI has lavished a lot of care and attention on all of these sets, and Aqualung is certainly no exception. This is a Tull collector’s sonic wet dream, with a repressing of the original LP in a new stereo mix (vinyl!), two CDs, an audio DVD and an audio Blu-ray, as well as a sumptuously illustrated hardback book. It’s a handsome package to be sure, but the best thing about Aqualung, as it was with Dark Side of the Moon (and hopefully will be with Wish You Were Here) is that the sonic side of things has been granted this same vigorous, painstaking attention.

The Blu-ray version of Aqualung is no doubt the major, if not the only, drawing card for readers of this site and review, so we’ll concentrate on the contents of the Blu-ray disc included in this expansive set. The audio options on the Blu-ray disc are impressive, to say the least:

• New Mix by Steven Wilson 2011 – 96/24 LPCM Stereo
• New Mix by Steven Wilson 2011 – 96/24 LPCM 5.1
• New Mix by Steven Wilson 2011 – DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Original Mix (Direct Transfer of ¼ Inch Master) – 96/24 LPCM Stereo
• Quad Mix (Original 1974 Quadrophonic Mix by Robin Black) – 96/24 LPCM 4.1
• Quad Mix (Original 1974 Quadrophonic Mix by Robin Black) – DTS-HD Master Audio 4.1

A note appended to the audio mixes notes that the Quad Mix’s version of “Wind Up” runs 40 seconds shorter than the other mixes.

The BD also includes a rather incredible selection of bonus tracks, all in 96/24 LPCM, with the ones marked with an asterisk below also coming in an LPCM 5.1 surround mix. (It’s a bit confusing, but you have to pre-select your audio choice as LPCM 5.1 from the main menu, which is really about Aqualung’s audio options, to access the 5.1 mixes on the bonus tracks). These are both unreleased versions of several tunes, as well as alternate takes, some with occasional studio chatter by Anderson and the band. Unless otherwise noted below, these are all Steven Wilson mixes. The bonus tracks are:

• Lick Your Fingers Clean*
• Just Trying to Be
• My God* (Early version, previously unreleased)
• Wond’ring Aloud (Unreleased early version 12/13/70)
• Wind-Up (Early version)
• Slipstream (Take 2)
• Up the Pool (Early version, previously unreleased)
• Wond’ring Aloud Again (Unreleased Morgan Studios version)
• Life is a Long Song*
• Up the Pool*
• Dr. Bogenbroom (Original Mix Remastered)
• From Later (Original Mix Remastered)
• Nursie
(Original Mix Remastered)

All of these come with sometimes amusing illustrations and photos, and I must say I especially like the mad photo of Hammond-Hammond accompanying “Dr. Bogenbroom,” which is captioned “Jeffrey dines well!” Thanks, guys, I do okay. Oh, wait, that Jeffrey.

The audio section below will actually get into the nuts and bolts of how this release sounds, but from a general perspective this release is going to be something of a revelation to many longtime Tull fans. As is discussed in the lavish oversized hardback book accompanying this release, Aqualung's original mix never sounded great for a variety of reasons. Tull had done quite a bit of work at the less than ideal Morgan Studios in April and June of 1970 (and some of those tracks are included here) before moving to the then brand new Basing Street studios that Island Records had just opened in December 1970 and February 1971. Tull and Led Zeppelin were in Ian Anderson's words the "guinea pigs" for the new studio and the experiment did not go entirely swimmingly. There are a number of technical problems the band encountered and many fans have long felt that the original mix of the album was lackluster, especially with regard to a less than fulsome low end and bass. New mixer Steven Wilson states that he was actually pleasantly surprised when he got back to the source multitrack tapes and was able to cull much more sound from them then the original album mix might have indicated was possible.

Jethro Tull: Aqualung Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Though this is ostensibly an "audio only" release, there is minimal video content on the Blu-ray, encoded via AVC. It's simple things like an animated screen featuring the original album cover with superimposed titles of whatever song is playing, or in the case of the bonus tracks, various (sometimes weird and wacky) promo pictures of Ian and the boys. Nothing earthshaking, but it looks fine.

Jethro Tull: Aqualung Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

With the almost overwhelming choice of audio options on this set (see above for full details), there's something for just about everyone here. But a great place to start, just to hear how far Steven Wilson has taken the original source elements, is to go directly to the flat transfer of the original album stereo mix on the Blu-ray. It sounds manifestly better than it ever did on LP or CD (not to state the obvious) simply by dint of the fact it's presented at 96/24 LPCM stereo, but then take a moment to breathe and dive into any of Wilson's new mixes for a revelatory experience. The original mix of Aqualung was hampered by a muddy, inchoate midrange and really flat out wimpy low end, and those problems have been completely eliminated by Wilson. I personally preferred the uncompressed LPCM 5.1 mix to even the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, and Wilson has done an exceptional job of staying true to the original stereo separation of the album while introducing some fantastic surround elements. Ian's megaphone moments in "Aqualung" are a prime example. Wilson has also addressed the overuse of reverb in the rear channels on the original Quadrophonic mix by Robin Black, and while there is definitely still a wetter sound than perhaps even Anderson wanted (the interview with engineer John Burns indicates he really was going for an overly "dry" sound here), it's manifestly better in Wilson's approach than in the original. Whole new levels of clarity and precision can be heard, and the filigreed instrumentation has never sounded more inviting. Even the new stereo mix is something of a surprise, with a really beautifully modulated midrange and impressive new low end. Wilson has more or less mimicked the original stereo separation here, though things aren't quite as widely splayed as before (the guitar solo in "Locomotive Breath" is a prime example).

Jethro Tull: Aqualung Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

It's hard to know exactly what is a supplement and what isn't in a set like this, as I mentioned in my review of the prior EMI behemoth, Dark Side of the Moon. If we start with the thesis that the Blu-ray disc is the "main feature," and everything else is a bonus, here are the rest of the contents of this beautifully slipcased set:

• Aqualung LP. This is cut from the new Steven Wilson stereo mix and pressed on 180 gm heavy weight vinyl in a reproduction of the original gatefold sleeve. Little pockets inside the gatefold hold cardboard sleeves containing the CDs, DVD and Blu-ray.
• Aqualung CD 1. This CD contains the new Steven Wilson stereo mix of the album.
• Aqualung CD 2. This CD contains the bonus tracks included on the Blu-ray (see above in the main body of the review) in new stereo mixes (with the exception of tracks 11-13, which are remastered versions of the original tracks). The CD also contains a short extra track featuring a U.S. Radio Spot.
• Aqualung DVD. This is basically a DVD audio version of the Blu-ray, with the album mixed to 5.1 surround. Four additional recordings are featured in DTS Surround (96/24) and Dolby Digital 5.1 (48/24).
• 48 Page 12x12 Hardback Book. This is a treasure trove for Tull-heads, with a 6000 word essay (somewhat cheekily referred to as liner notes), rare photos, reminiscences and interviews with the musicians and original engineer John Burns, as well as mixing notes from Steven Wilson. There's also a reproduction of the 1971 Aqualung tour brochure, full lyrics and a touring chronology for 1970 and 1971.

Jethro Tull: Aqualung Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For those who look at the cost of these new EMI sets, let me just say, "I feel your pain." These are obviously very expensive and some may question the need for so much. But as a cost-conscious (my wife might say miserly) collector myself, it's my considered opinion that EMI has done right by the two sets I've reviewed thus far. In fact in some ways, Aqualung is the better value of the two (the other being Dark Side of the Moon) simply because it doesn't have the really needless swag like marbles and in fact the entire set is focused and consistently about the album. The new mixes by Wilson are absolutely incredible and any Tull fan really should try to hear them, one way or the other. With reference quality audio and a wealth of beautiful supplements, though this will cost a pretty penny, Aqualung comes Highly recommended.