Jethro Tull ★★★ The Zealot Gene INSIDE OUT. CD/DL/LP

Ian Anderson’s first record since his solo Homo Erraticus in 2014.

It’s called a group album, but these days with a sole composer whose voice and trilling flute take centre stage, Anderson solo records and Tull albums are hard to separate. The good news is that, after his overwrought historical concept album in 2014, here are 12 less erratic songs on diverse subjects: polarised politics, drunken ladettes in Cardiff, and – returning to an Aqualung theme – the Old Testament Jehovah gets a good kicking. Lyrics can be opaque: Mrs Tibbets must be the first song about the destruction of Hiroshima to feature repeated references to Eccles cake. The rockier tunes need louder guitars and it’s the folkier moments with mandolin, Irish whistle and accordion that shine brightest. There’s not much here to rival very top Tull (In Brief Visitation and Mine Is The Mountain come close) but then nothing that sullies the venerable brand either.