After two consecutive new Jethro Tull album releases in 2022 and 2023, a new record, Curious Ruminant, is unleashed on Friday, March 7. Consisting of nine new tracks varying in length from two and half minutes to almost seventeen minutes, this is an album of mostly full band music. 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.

To coincide with this announcement, the albums title track has been launched digitally, alongside a video by Costin Chioreanu (who previously created the bands video for "Ginnungagap" from RökFlöte). Watch the clip below.

Curious Ruminant will be available on several different formats, including a Ltd Deluxe Ultra Clear 180g 2LP + 2CD + Blu-ray Artbook & Ltd Deluxe 2CD+Blu-ray Artbook. Both of these feature the main album, alternative stereo mixes & a blu-ray containing Dolby Atmos & 5.1 Surround Sound (once again undertaken by Bruce Soord of The Pineapple Thief), as well as exclusive interview material. The Ltd Deluxe vinyl artbook also includes two exclusive art-prints. The album will also be available as a Special Edition CD Digipak, Gatefold 180g LP + LP-booklet & as Digital Album (in both stereo & Dolby Atmos).

Pre-order here.

Tracklisting:

"Puppet And The Puppet Master"
"Curious Ruminant"
"Dunsinane Hill"
"The Tipu House"
"Savannah Of Paddington Green"
"Stygian Hand"
"Over Jerusalem"
"Drink From The Same Well"
"Interim Sleep"

"Curious Ruminant" video:

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.

Anderson's writing here is often on a 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.

The band consists of:

Ian Anderson – Flutes, vocals, acoustic guitar, tenor guitar, mandolin, odds and sods, bits and bobs
David Goodier - Bass guitar
John O’Hara - Piano, keyboards, accordion
Scott Hammond – Drums
Jack Clark – Electric guitar

The album also features:

James Duncan – Drums, cajón, percussion
Andrew Giddings – Piano, keyboards, accordion