THICK AS A BRICK 2 (AKA: TAAB2)

Count me among those old fans of Jethro Tull and the original Thick As A Brick album who were skeptical that a sequel was a good idea. As it turns out Ian was sort of goaded into it by Derek Shulman. The concept reminds me of Gentle Giant's Three Friends about different adult outcomes of the three as adults. Here five possible outcomes of Gerald Bostock's life are explored with two songs each.

I didn't rush out and get this album, but after trying out the first few tracks on streaming, I knew I would likely like the whole thing. Musically there are a lot of echoes back to older days of Tull. There's nothing wrong with that for me. You can't have a proper sequel without that. He's assembled a band of talented young unknowns to me. Steven Wilson, not unknown to me, is on board for the mixing, always a winner.

I would encourage fans particularly those who experienced the original LP with it's fake newspaper album cover to spring for the special edition. The surround sound brings you back to those good old days of quad?or at least those when you were forced to sit down and put the record on to listen to it. Instead of flipping through an album cover you can read the lyrics on screen. The St. Cleve is still there only it's a PDF of an actual fake web site that you can go to. Then for good measure there's a making of short and an interviews short. I still haven't been able to make it through Ian's lyric reading bit. See Ian at various locations or with green screened backgrounds. OK, maybe that's all a bit much, but I got a kick out the entire package.

In the end it would be impossible to make an album that could supplant or exceed number one's place in prog history, but sometimes it feels good to go number 2.