THICK AS A BRICK

I've always been a fan of Jethro Tull's earliest work and especially their 'Aqualung' album, but 'Thick as a Brick' never really appealed to me. This album has been reviewed and revered repeatedly over the decades, even though the self-indulgence and excess it demonstrated (and rather intentionally it seems) helped bring about the demise of the progressive rock heyday.

I personally suspect many of the people who speak in hushed and reverent tones about this album probably never even sat through several, let alone one, end-to-end playing. If you have then you know everything you need to know about the record. It's an interesting though somewhat sarcastic piece of music, written by a guy who didn't have a lot of respect for progressive rock as an art-form and whose band would to their consternation be forever associated with a genre they didn't even believe in.

At some point in the future, possible after I've reviewed everything else I find more interesting, I'll revisit 'Thick as a Brick' and see if there's something more useful I can say about it. Until then I'll just say that I think it is overrated, just as the term "overrated" is overrated. But I can't think of anything better to describe the record without wasting any more time on it, and I'm not inclined to do that.

Three stars just because it is a classic and I do like the band. Just not this record.

peace