Secret Language of Birds

Because he's oft-lumped with classic-rock vets from the Zeppelin era, it's easy to forget that Jethro Tull's flautist-vocalist Ian Anderson has always been a complete original. It's also tempting to think that Tull has in recent years been little more than a vehicle for Anderson's idiosyncratic whims, but his third solo outing, The Secret Language of Birds, quickly clarifies that notion. Entirely acoustic and worlds away from its two predecessors--the dated electro-pop of 1983's Walk into Light and the refined classicism of 1995's Divinities: Twelve Dances with God--Birds hearkens back to the pastoral, Renaissance-tinged music that Tull has explored less and less since Tull's second outing, 1969's Stand Up. With a nod to the folk influences of Steeleye Span (whom Anderson produced) and rife with Gaelic and Eastern European musical influences, Anderson contemplates issues from lost innocence to the Irish Problem with typically baroque grace. --Jerry McCulley