THICK AS A BRICK

With this album, JETHRO TULL was increasingly becoming a more Progressive Rock band in musical style. If their previous "Aqualung" album still had a more Rock music influenced side (the Side One of the album) and a more Folk / Acoustic music influenced side (the Side Two of the album), this album from 1972 has more complicated musical arrangements with the keyboards played by John Evan having a more central role. Anyway, this album is a continuous musical piece with one song titled "Thick as a Brick", divided in two parts (for the two sides of the original LP). The complicated lyrics were allegedly written by a boy called "Gerald Bostock" (being really written, like the music, by Ian Anderson). The boy's story is told in the cover, with this boy really being an invention from Anderson. So, this is a conceptual album from the band. As I wrote before, the lyrics are hard to understand, at least for me. But the music and the arrangements are very good. But I like more their next album, titled " A Passion Play". But the main musical theme of this album (maybe the first 10 minutes of the album) is the best part of this album, with Anderson's flute melody and acoustic guitar. This part was also played a lot in the radio in my city.

The cover design for this album was done to look like a newspaper. It was a very much elaborated cover design. Coincidentally, also in 1972, but some months after the release of this album, an album from JOHN LENNON and YOKO ONO, titled "Some Time in New York City", was released, and it also had a cover designed to look like a newspaper. But maybe the "Thick as a Brick" album had more success than that album. "Some Time in New York City" has been very much criticized by its musical and lyrical content, sometimes being considered as Lennon's worst album. In comparison, "Thick is a Brick" is a very much appreciated album by a lot of Prog Rock music fans. It still is, as I write this review, in Number Three in Prog Archives' s "Top Prog Albums" list.

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