J-Tull Dot Com

J-Tull Dot Com

The cyber-centric title of Jethro Tull's 25th collection of new music is cause for pause. Ye olde art-rock band dropping <i>au courant</i> lingo into their songs from the wood? Ian Anderson intoning with characteristic gravity: "Punch my name and in case you wonder / I'll be yours / Yours dot com"? Hmmm. What would that poor old sod <i>Aqualung</i> think? Get past the notion that these fixtures of prog-rock have hit upon the dubious notion of using an album title as a billboard for their Web site, however, and you've got a collection that will leave Tull true believers contented. The group's inimitable hard rock and otherworldly folk brew makes no less--or more--sense now than it did when the group emerged with such unlikely hits as the aforementioned <i>Aqualung</i> and 1972's <i>Thick as a Brick</i>, which consisted of one 43-minute song spread over two sides of a record. If they could pull that off, these durable graybeards can find love on the Internet. <i>--Steven Stolder</i>