A PASSION PLAY

I discovered "A Passion Play" before "Thick is A Brick". It was back in December 1974. I received a taped cassette from it (you know, the ancestor of the download ...). At that time I found it a quite interesting and good album. I listened to it quite frequently although it was rather difficult to enter into.

After a looooong period (thirty years : so you can add several ooooooo's), I (re) discovered it. At first, I was quite disappointed. The Tull obviously tried to match "Thick" (which I had discovered in the meantime). This album is not as catchy as "Thick". It will also be poorly appreciated by the rock reviewers and press in general. I could not blame them.

When I listened to it back in 2004, I thought : hey ! how could I have loved this one (really). I spun it only a couple of times till recently. Since I decided to review the whole of the Tull's repertoire I tried again and again. I think that I have listened more to "A Passion Play" for the last three days than for the last three years for the purpose of writing about it. After a few spins, my meaning started to change : part one was rgood with very few weak moments. Not as melodious as "Thick" but a dark, profund prog track. Too little fluting though for my taste.

It took me another four (or even five) spins to be able to get into part two. It is really hard. At first (I remind you that this was more than thirty years ago in my case), I considered the cabaret-type intro as funny (you know "The Hare"). When I rediscovered it, I found it boring, dull : in a word useless. This is still my feeling. Another minute or so of average "sounds" and there we go again for another good Tull moment.

And again I tried and tried. Till the moment that I effectively believe that this is a very good Tull album. Not reaching the masterpiece level, but I can tell you, my rating for this one was two stars when I started to prepare my first hundreds of reviews to be posted here. Two months have passed, and I got used to "A Passion Play" and started to like it, even if it will never bring me true "Passion" (like other Tull albums).

It is definitely not the Tull album to start with. If you do not like at first sight, forget it a bit, then come back and listen carefully. You'll be rewarded, really. Seven out of ten.