Includes liner notes by Ian Anderson.

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Personnel: Martin Barre (guitar).

How does one evaluate a best-of compilation by a legendary band who's released several such collections already? Frankly, most, if not all, of these selections have appeared on Jethro Tull hits collections and, in many cases, multiple times. And after decades of being critical of record companies capitalizing off artists by releasing one greatest-hits album after another, frontman Ian Anderson decided to choose the actual tracks for this album. The ironic thing is, this Tull collection is no different than those that preceded it, except that perhaps maximum disc space was utilized here, as it's comprised of 20 tracks and 78 minutes of music. There's nothing new here for avid Jethro Tull fans, and curious potential fans have at least a dozen other retrospectives to choose from. ~ Dave Sleger

Though they're often lumped in with other 1970s prog-rock groups, Jethro Tull was always a band apart. With their British folk leanings, they had a foot in the UK folk-rock camp a la Fairport Convention, and their knack for trenchant guitar riffs endeared them to the Led Zeppelin-loving heavy-rock crowd as well. THE VERY BEST OF JETHRO TULL touches on all the aspects of the group's sound, drawing liberally from every era of their career. While all the classic-rock-radio staples are here (the chugging rocker "Locomotive Breath," the meter-shifting prog fave "Thick as a Brick," the mammoth riff-monster "Aqualung"), there's more relatively obscure fare on offer, too. While a few more well-known cuts are absent from this collection, the jig-like "The Whistler" and the latter-day tracks "Broadsword" and "Steel Monkey" stand to prove that there's more to the Jethro Tull story than what the casual listener may glean from some narrow-casting oldies station.

Q (7/01, p.136) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Jethro Tull fare much better when holding to the pastoral blueprint of earlier tracks 'The Witch's Promise' and 'Songs From The Wood'. Intermittent joy for Morris Dancers and Tudor battle re-enactment enthusiasts everywhere..."