A PASSION PLAY

Something about A PASSION PLAY annoys me now moreso than when I first listened to it. It's not that this thing is more experimental than other Jethro Tull works, employing many a saxophone line and toying with a few synths. I admire Ian and Co. for being bold enough to try to incorporate some new elements into their sound.

I'm afraid much of what they're doing is simply lost on me. It's hard to stomach A PASSION PLAY in one go when the only musical movements that really perked my interest (save one that I'll go over later) are the very beginning and very end of the entire album. The middle is plagued by too many ideas coming and going without making their mark on the listener. What made the length of THICK AS A BRICK work was the proper development of a few themes and exploiting them well. A PASSION PLAY seems to meander too much, suffering from various transition issues. Plus, many of the themes are simply unmemorable.

As perverse as this sounds, the only real reason I have for dragging this thing out every so often is that ''Hare That Lost His Spectacles'' section. I am dead serious, kids. Probably because it's the only thing on the album that doesn't take itself seriously without going overboard goofy. I imagine this paragraph is going to make progsters everywhere give me that dirty look that says, ''What is wrong with you?''

It certainly is controversial. It's an album that could get progsters excited on first listen only for the dragging nature to slowly bring the overall approval down.