A PASSION PLAY

This album seems to cause the most distress among fans and, as you can see from other reviews, led to incredibly varying opinions. I personally think that A Passion Play is one of Tull''s best, in no way inferior to their universally declared masterpiece Thick as a Brick.

Everyone knows that TAAB was Tull''s mockery of concept albums (after Aqualung being mislabeled, according to Anderson) by presenting and absolutely ridiculous concept; the entire lyric of the 40+ minute song was an epic poem written by an 8 year old boy. For APP, Ian Anderson decided to take the concept album idea seriously, crafting an incredibly deep and well-written story of a man''s journey from death to limbo, heaven to hell, and the afterlife back into the "passion play" of mortal life. (I don't have the time or patience to outline the entire story for you, but there are plenty of resources on the web, such as an article at "the ministry of information" website). They even had time to write the short parable in the form of the interesting, humorous "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles."

Although this album took a few listens to grow on me, it is now my favorite Jethro Tull album. The music in APP is quite possibly even more intricate and complex than on TAAB. It lacks the flow of TAAB and has less repeated musical themes, but i personally don''t think the album suffers from it (although it makes calling APP a single song a bit unnecessary). Ian Anderson seems to put his flute aside for most of the album, filling the void with the saxophone. This at first disappointed me, but the different sound grew on me and helps make this album stand out as a unique work, especially compared to TAAB.

Because it happens to be one of the most coherent, interesting, and deep concept albums I''ve heard, A Passion Play deserves no less than 5 stars. A must have for any Tull fan and highly recommended for all prog fans.