New Jethro Tull Album and Umlauts

Plus RIP Gordon Lightfoot

I’ve been listening to Jethro Tull’s new album RökFlöte. It takes me a long time to digest an album before I feel qualified to review it, but after four spins I’m enjoying the production as well as the flute and guitar playing. I recommend this review from Sea of Tranquility if you want detailed opinions of the record. The lyrical inspiration comes from Norse mythology, so I expect further listening could generate ideas to enrich tabletop role playing games like Ironsworn or Wolves Upon the Coast.

Ian Anderson has been making the interview rounds to discuss the creative process for RökFlöte. In several of these conversations, he has shared his thoughtfulness on the use of umlauts in the album title. This has included criticisms of how umlauts have been used by other bands, including Motörhead and Mötley Crüe. He makes these arguments on linguistic grounds, as well as over concerns with using symbols that may suggest Nazi implications.

We can expect such deep introspection over an album title from the well-read, philosophical Ian Anderson. Meanwhile, from me, you can expect this…

In any case, hat tip to Ian for giving us something to think about the next time we are playing MÖRK BORG and listening to Blue Öyster Cult (or Queensrÿche or Hüsker Dü or Amon Düül II or Spın̈al Tap or …)

Five Albums

I was a panelist on an episode of The Contrarians this week. The concept was to select your favorites if you could only listen to five albums for the rest of your life. The catch was that all five albums had to be from the same year…

RIP Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot passed away this week. I’ve been a longtime fan, and I’m thankful I got to see him live in concert eight years ago. I have never associated him with my TTRPG hobby, and it feels inappropriate to try to connect the rusty sword of “Don Quixote” or the castle dark of “If You Could Read My Mind” to RPG adventure ideas right now. But I suspect the players in my campaigns just might encounter a Minstrel of the Dawn NPC in the coming weeks. For a deep dive on Gordon Lightfoot’s songwriting genius, I strongly recommend this “What Makes this Song Great?” video from Rick Beato.