A PASSION PLAY

It seems than every major prog band back then released an album ''good'' enough to be crushed to pieces by critics and some of their fans.ELP had BRAIN SALAD SURGERY or WORKS vol1, YES produced the always ''controversial'' TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS or PINK FLOYD with THE FINAL CUT!

PASSION PLAY fits this criteria for JETHRO TULL.After the release of THICK AS A BRICK which became a #1 hit in UK and in the USA, IAN ANDERSON decided to stick with the magic winning formula.Another concept one song-suite! Why not? Don't fix if it ain't broke, they say!!

When released in 1973, PASSION PLAY was badly criticized by almost all rock critics, real bad. All the words used to decry a prog album were used with profusion such as pretentious, over the top, self indulgent or pompous. What was great with TAAB suddenly has disappeared with the new album, replaced by worthless music. So what about PASSION PLAY 3 decades later??

This is not an album to hate or reject, neither it is an album i worship! this is a good album, not great, some kind of middle of the road JETHRO TULL music. There are some pleasant parts like the beginning of the 2 parts with nice ANDERSON vocals, some nice instrumental parts that are very energetic and enjoyable like on part 2, some other kind of dull noodling like at the end of part one. Some melodies are memorable, some other suffer from originality, or lack of!

Also, i am sure MARTIN BARRE is not listening too much this album as he is quite non-existent throughout the album! Ian ANDERSON is all over it. When he is not singing, he is fluting; when the flute stops, time for the saxophone!!and a lot of it, believe me! more than the guitar ,for sure. But i like to hear the guitar of LANCELOT on a JT recording.I have to wait the end of the album to finally notice him.

Next to IAN ANDERSON, the star is JOHN EVAN very, very present: a lot of good organ, piano and even some synths.This is definitely the most proggish album from JT with TAAB. Did i mention about THE HARE?? everybody has an opinion about this piece of ''music''. Again, i am in the middle for this ''masterpiece''; it's not bad, it's even entertaining, but it could have been well shortened!! There is nothing wrong being funny even for a serious prog musician.

Not a bad album, even pleasant to listen to on some occasions. I definitely prefer part 2 than part1, but JETHRO TULL did better than that before and....will do better.

3 STARS!

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