Title: LEAST ESSENTIAL ROCK CROSSOVER
Review: Rock bands teaming with orchestras: By now everyone from Metallica (on S&M) to The Moody Blues (all summer, every summer at mid-sized civic centers across the land) has given it a try, usually with less-than-inspiring results. So it would be easy enough to ignore Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson teaming up with the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, if it weren't for one thing: There's absolutely nothing novel about a flautist playing with an orchestra. Anderson admits as much in the album's surprisingly cranky liner notes. He also admits that past pairings haven't gone so well: "Having had the odd show when the High School Band of Dumbsquat College, Upper Delaware-on-the-lake would have done better, I relax and rejoice when we get a good and dedicated orchestra who will work hard to find that special something which brings it all alive for musicians and audience alike." The relentlessly dull album, however, is likely to result in too much relaxing and not enough rejoicing.
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