THICK AS A BRICK

Jethro Tull

Prog Folk

4.64 | 3706 ratings

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Luqueasaur

A joke gone correctly wrong: 8/10

I'll begin by citing Rolling Stone's commentary on THICK AS A BRICK, which I find absolutely curious: "Miffed that many critics mistook 1971's Aqualung for a concept album, Tull leader Ian Anderson decided to follow it up by parodying the entire concept-album concept. [...] It was a brilliant prank, one so seamlessly executed, in fact, that most people didn't get the joke. Not that they needed to in order to enjoy it." (from 50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time)

When one meets the eerie THICK AS A BRICK and its famed lengthiness (although, honestly, it's no shocker for prog rock veterans) they might become apprehensive. For comparative purposes, we have THE DEVIL GLITCH, by CHRIS BUTLER, which is an hour long alt/pop-rock epic, which possibly has all the flaws our aforementioned "one" fears: repetitiveness and incapability to keep you focused the entire song (it is still really fun and worth checking out!). Well, if THE DEVIL GLITCH have those characteristics, then it's the perfect antithesis of THICK AS A BRICK.

The album is ever changing from mellow to ecstatic pieces; from flute-ridden solos to keyboard-guitar duos (especially the magnificent Pt. I outro); from guitar solos to vocal-drums-keyboard accompaniment. There's constant tempo and time signature changes, emphasis on the constant. Another point to compare to THE DEVIL GLITCH is the lyrically superb production. You get rich, vast, often satirical, often acid, often philosophical, often metalinguistic, often metaphorical lines. JETHRO TULL utilizes a wide array of literary features to bring a vast experience, lyrically speaking.

THICK AS A BRICK is - as many hundreds of thousands of people agree, and a few thousand attest publically through nominal reviews - a must-have of the progressive genre.

Luqueasaur | 4/5 | 2017-1-24

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