Gatefold sleeve, 180g black vinyl, poly-lined inner sleeves, 8-page LP-booklet (US Version).
After two consecutive new Tull album releases in 2022 and 2023, another collection – Curious Ruminant – is unleashed in March 2025. Consisting of nine tracks varying in length from two and half minutes to almost seventeen minutes, this is an album of mostly full band music, again in a broadly progressive rock style.
Amongst the musicians featured are former keyboardist Andrew Giddings and drummer James Duncan, along with the current band members David Goodier, John O’Hara, Scott Hammond and, making his recording debut with the band, guitarist Jack Clark.
As is customary these days in a world of different product configurations, Curious Ruminant is released in CD, Vinyl, and a deluxe edition of CD/Blu-ray to offer up surround sound mixes in 5.1, Dolby Atmos and with alternative stereo mixes – all by Bruce Soord of The Pineapple Thief fame. These accompany the original stereo mixes by producer and composer Ian Anderson.
Anderson’s writing here is often on an more personal level of lyric content than we are used to hearing. Interspersed with his usual observational descriptions are the slightly more heart-on-sleeve moments of soul-baring – albeit not on the topics more often paraded by the usual I-me lyric merchants of pop and rock.
Some of the songs are developed from unfinished instrumental demos made some years ago although this does not result in a huge stylistic divide to jump out at the listener. Apart from the signature flute solos and melodies, accordion, mandolin, acoustic and tenor guitars feature on several tracks too, so the subtle backdrop of acoustic and folk rock serves to remind of the Tull heritage of the 70s.
Ian Anderson had been saying for months following the release of RökFlöte that he would embark on a new project in late 2023. He waited only a few weeks before the first notions began to solidify into some drafted words of intent and in May 2024, some unfinished music recorded earlier with John O’Hara, David Goodier and James Duncan became the starting point for the new songs as they took shape.
Writing the lyrics and melodies for all the newly written material came very quickly once he began in earnest during June and just seemed to slot right in to the musical feel and styles of the earlier recordings.
Tracklist:
Side A:
- Puppet And The Puppet Master [4:04]
- Curious Ruminant [6:00]
- Dunsinane Hill [4:17]
- The Tipu House [3:31]
- Savannah Of Paddington Green [3:13]
- Stygian Hand [4:16]
Side B:
- Over Jerusalem [5:55]
- Drink From The Same Well [16:42]
- Interim Sleep [2:33]
