Crest of a Knave

Crest Of A Knave won Jethro Tull a Grammy and as it turned out, it was voted the best metal album! It just goes to show that the people voting for these awards do not seem to have a clue. It's obvious that they had not heard some of the earlier albums by this band, which were much more deserving of an award- Thick As A Brick comes to mind immediately, because it was so innovative and groundbreaking. With all of that said, Crest Of A Knave is a fine rock album, minus the progressive elements however. I agree with Ian Anderson, as it's one of my favorites as well. For it's pure, straight ahead rock approach, you cannot ask for more. Martin Barre proves once again why he has been one of the preeminent string benders of the last 40 years.

"Farm on the Freeway," not looked upon as a classic JT track, most certainly is in my book and "Budapest" is an incredible tune that still stands tall today and is one of the highlights of their live performances. "Steel Monkey" is quite the rocker to start the set. It is the band's own personal tribute to that little old band from Texas, you know the dudes with the long beards?

I am spoiled and accustomed to enjoying a plethora of bonus tracks on nearly every release of this remastered series, this one offers only one, "Part of the Machine," which is excellent. The remastering is superb as usual and I immediately pulled my old copy out of my CD rack and threw it in a box once I heard this. It was a very intelligent decision to get Anderson involved with this process and to offer his perception of each album's sessions. It makes each release so special to all of us hardcore JT fans. Another one well done-I would expect nothing less.