A PASSION PLAY

Most prefer Thick as a Brick, but this one feels much more cohesive and emotionally involving to me. As far as I know, it's the only album on which Ian Anderson plays soprano sax, and he does it all over this record. As with Thick as a Brick, this is one song spread over two sides, with the "main theme" serving as both an opening and a closing, bringing the concept full circle. The lyrical concept is even harder to understand than Thick's, but that makes it all the more appealing. The left-field inclusion of the children's story of "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles" right in the middle of the piece is absolutely hilarious, and gives the whole piece a few extra points as a result. All the musical themes are compelling, the weird atmospheric parts more daring, and the emotional impact of the thematic development especially convincing. They caught a lot of flak for this album, and moved towards a more folk-rock oriented direction afterwards, making a few more good albums, but this one has a magic that I haven't heard from them before or since.