A Passion Play Vs. Minstrel in the Gallery

Passion Play was the first Tull album I can remember being released.  It was "MY" Tull album.  By the time Minstrel came out I was a bit jaded.  I thought some of Minstrel was quite good, but some of it was weak on the shorter songed side.  Now, I can appreciate songs like Cold Wind To Valhalla, but at the time it didn't click for me.  I find that music to be akin to Heavy Horses - hard to penetrate, not a lot of sonic variety and somewhat dark/muddy.

Passion Play is light, lively, always changing it's sonic palette.  It's so inventive, mostly through composed and rarely stays in one place long enough to get comfortable.  It's difficult for your average listener, but I love it.  Add to that the additional lost recordings that link Thick As A Brick and A Passion Play (as found on Chateau D'Isaster portion of Nightcap) and one has the most intriguing JT years for this listener.

Minstrel, when it came out, beguiled me with side two.  I loved the rock intro to side one and all of side two, but felt side one to be plodding and somewhat pedestrian.  Nowadays I can listen to the album and it's almost new because I gave so little time to it then.  It's a great and mysterious album, but does it rank with Passion Play for me?  No, not a bit.  I even find Songs From The Wood to do better what Minstrel strove for.  I believe Minstrel is a transitional piece, albeit an incredible one. 

Ahhh, Jethro Tull.  Those were the days!

Ronnie Pilgrim wrote: And since so many have breached the subject, the four some odd minutes of "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles" has a point, at least; whereas the two some odd minutes of noise I like to call "Overwhelming Responsibility" on Thick as a Brick is just bothersome.

I concur. Nicely put there. However, I still prefer TAAB out of the two.
Minstrel has been growing on me immensely lately. I've overlooked it because of my (still) War Child infatuation, but as far as album craftsmanship is concerned APP wins hands down.

Hands down, Minstrel in the Gallery!
Imho, A passion play was an effort to make another Thick a a Brick, but it was not so successful.
In the other hand, 'Minstrel' has some great songs, and let's not forget 'Baker Street Muse'. One of the greatest compositions of Jethro Tull... (And rather unknown)...
Anyway..

A very difficult choice for me personally and that is based on the importance of vocal capabilities. Ian Anderson's vocal work on "Living In The Past", "Aqualung" and "Stand Up" is decent, but with Passion and Minstrel it is clearly a moment in time where he progressed with his vocal abilities in range and dynamics. I never heard him sing quite like that again! Even on "Songs From the Wood" where his voice begins to slightly lack in control. On Minstrel and Passion he is almost untouchable. That is a moment in prog history when he was in fact an impeccable vocalist. The smoothness and control was very powerful. On both of the recordings there is a small dose of reverb where it sounds like he is singing in a huge hall. With his amazing control (during that time period), it comes across a bit Classical. He was very amazing.

TODDLER wrote: A very difficult choice for me personally and that is based on the importance of vocal capabilities. Ian Anderson's vocal work on "Living In The Past", "Aqualung" and "Stand Up" is decent, but with Passion and Minstrel it is clearly a moment in time where he progressed with his vocal abilities in range and dynamics. I never heard him sing quite like that again! Even on "Songs From the Wood" where his voice begins to slightly lack in control. On Minstrel and Passion he is almost untouchable. That is a moment in prog history when he was in fact an impeccable vocalist. The smoothness and control was very powerful. On both of the recordings there is a small dose of reverb where it sounds like he is singing in a huge hall. With his amazing control (during that time period), it comes across a bit Classical. He was very amazing.

Funny, because I always thought he had a tendency to overdramatize on those albums. Especially on APP he always sounds a bit strained.

Anyway, this is a difficult one for me. APP is more consistent, but I rarely feel a need to listen to it because it's all so samey and overly serious. I pretty much enjoy all the individual sections/songs/whatever, but taken as a whole it's just too much. I think it would have helped if they had recorded and indexed all the songs separately. That would have given them more of an opportunity to bring out the essence of each song. As it stands, every minute of the album (except the hare interlude) is recorded in the same style, with the same instrumentation, the same sounds etc. And the material isn't as diverse as TAAB to begin with, so the one-track approach doesn't serve it well.

Minstrel I find rather inconsistent. I love three songs: The title track, Cold Wind to Valhalla and One White Duck. The vocal sections of Black Satin Dancer are a bit weak, I think (I have my gripes with how the individual lines are arranged to form a verse, like how the first melody line is repeated six times in a row when it should have some kind of counterpart. In a different order, I probably would enjoy them a lot more), but the middle section is great. Baker St. Muse has its good and its bad moments, although it has no really outstanding moments in either direction. At its best it's mildly engaging, and at its worst it's boring but perfectly listenable. Requiem is boring through and through, with no discernible vocal melody. Grace is too short to make an impression on me either way, obviously. In the end, the good outweighs the bad, so it's a three-star album, as is APP. Minstrel gives me more of an incentive to listen to, but APP is more consistent. I can't decide.