Maybe Jethro Tull's #2, but it's still better than most artists' #1s
Written: Mar 22 '09 (Updated Mar 22 '09)
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Pros: One of the greatest prog rock albums of all time.
Cons: The finale not as bombastic as it might have been.
The Bottom Line: They just don't make them like this anymore.
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| foxy_shy's Full Review: Thick as a Brick [Bonus Tracks] [Limited] [Remaste... |
70s prog rock was seriously so cool, you have to wonder why it ever had to go. As fate would have it, today we have a few dozen great records surviving from the era when these things were norm, now standing out like T-Rex skeletons, stuff that you expect to find in your grandfather's music collection. Jethro Tull is one of those giants from the era long gone, and their most famous achievement probably lies with producing not one but two album-long compositions, Thick as a Brick (1972) and A Passion Play (1973).
Think about it, album-long compositions. Pretty unheard of these days, wouldn't you say? It was fairly unusual then, too. To be sure, Yes, Pink Floyd and others would routinely come up with 20-minute tracks, sometimes several on the same album, but an album-long composition? An endeavor of this magnitude might have seemed too formidable to many due to the near-impossible task of maintaining the necessary momentum within a common theme.
Not to Ian Anderson, the brain behind Jethro Tull. Following up on the success of Aqualung (1971), lauded by many as a "concept" album, Anderson decided to produce a work more becoming of that title. What frequently gets ignored in the wake of the album's success and its enduring status of a classic, however, is that Thick as a Brick was never intended to be taken seriously. In fact, in one of his interviews Anderson stated that the album was to serve as a spoof of the records such as produced by Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The "true" concept album, that is to say, a self-conscious work of art that knows what it is, was the group's next, also single-composition album A Passion Play. But that is a separate story.
So how does one write a 40-minute composition? To begin with, there are several sets of bookmarks whereby not only the opening and the finale, but also a number of smaller sections in between are made to balance each other, sharing some of the same themes. There is, furthermore, an overall feel of a carefully achieved balance between the two sides. Now, when I say "two sides" I merely mean that there is an intermission of sorts right in the middle of the whole thing, and a strange if not slightly eerie one at that (this is prog rock, after all), with the beat slowly fading out and then back in to the sound of a howling wind. Even that intermission, then, is balanced, further enhancing the impression of the record being an almost step-by-step precise inverted progression. A closer examination, of course, will reveal that the balance is not flawless, with some elements given greater prominence on one of the "sides," and still other elements not having a counterpart at all. This, however, should not be seen as a shortcoming, as the resulting imperfect balance helps erase the feel of all too artificial a construction that Thick as a Brick otherwise might have had.
Does it all work? Yes, and remarkably well at that. Although I am personally a bigger fan of A Passion Play, in my opinion (most music critics would disagree) the group's even more creative, daring, and ultimately more brilliant follow-up to this album, this record's few minor weaknesses (some sections are almost there for experimentation's sake, the record does not seem to deliver too big of a closing punch) can really only be observed when it is being evaluated against that other album-long work. What this means is that Thick as a Brick pretty much doesn't have a rival when it comes to anyone else outside of Jethro Tull themselves.
This, in turn, does not mean that Thick as a Brick is superior to the best work by Pink Floyd or Yes in the 70s. In fact, I would rank it behind all three of Floyd's undisputed classic albums (Dark Side of the Moon, With You Were Here, The Wall) and at least two of Yes' most complex works (Close to the Edge, Tales From Topographic Oceans). The thing is, however, when you get to discuss those records, there is no single opinion and there will always be some debate - as there should be any time when greatness is involved. Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick is unique at what it does, rich and creative as very few other records made then or today, and ceaselessly engaging even after dozens of repeated listens. It is an album to be enjoyed time and again, and as the best of prog rock it will continue to reveal greater depth of detail the more familiar with it you get.
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Driving
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foxy_shy
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a broke grad student... what else there is to say?
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