THICK AS A BRICK

Few progressive rock albums, even some of the best, are complete bliss to listen to from start to finish upon one's first listen. This was the first Jethro Tull album I'd listened to at all, mainly from the recommendation of my parents, neither of which is anything of a progressive listener. This is THE prog-folk album, Jethro Tull's greatest achievement, and there's not much I can say that you could read repeated a thousand times in past reviews. But it's worth mentioning that it was really what launched Jethro Tull into the world of progressive music, as just about everything that describes the sub-genre is in this album. Ironically this is also one of their most popular albums, it was so well written with such a quality production that it established the band as a total anomaly in commercial respects... I mean, how popular would you expect a progressive folk album to be, even in that time period? Nonetheless, everything - and I mean EVERYTHING about this album transcends even standard progressive music, the lyrics, the solos, compositional structures, even the intricate album cover. This is without a doubt any prog-fan's must have album.