THICK AS A BRICK

This is good, but not essential, IMO, so 3 stars sounds about right. This is the classic example of a song/album that has some great parts and some not-so great parts. From an ambitious standpoint, I'll give mad props to Anderson and the band for doing an album-long piece like this, especially at that point in their career, but ambition does not always equal greatness. I think Tull did it better with albums like Aqualung and Songs from the Wood.

In short, it meanders a bit too much for me, and it is a struggle for me to get through it in one sitting, unless it is background music. Lastly, it can be easily argued that this album represents both the best and worst aspects of prog rock in the 70s, so given that, I cannot give it 5 stars. 3 stars sounds about right.