Album of the Day

On this day in 1989, the first Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Performance was handed out – to Jethro Tull. Howls of protest accompanied the choice, but in fairness to the venerable British band, CREST OF A KNAVE offers guitarist Martin Barre plenty of opportunity to wail, and such tracks as “Steel Monkey” absolutely qualify as headbangers. The Chrysalis collection sparked a commercial and artistic resurgence for the group, which had been sidelined for three years while frontman Ian Anderson recovered from throat problems. If it's louder and more intense that their earlier work, CREST OF A KNAVE still features such Tull trademarks as ambitious folk-inflected epics (“Budapest”), social commentary (“Farm On The Freeway”) and of course Anderson's fine flute work. You might be a fool to look for Jethro Tull in the heavy metal section of your record store, but you'd be a knave to dismiss one of the band's best albums since their 1970s heyday.