THICK AS A BRICK

What else to write that hadn't been said already about this "mother of all concept albums"? It had been just a stunning work by JT and reading through the faked "St. Cleve Chronicle" being full of subtle hints to the lyrics alone is a big fun. The band's approach to album concepts and themes was always quite different from the one of other seminal Prog bands, not that much based on epics, history or fantasy. Thus "Little Milton's" poem this album here is based on can hardly be compared to concepts of other big works from that era though the topic hadn't been that far way from the one of "The Wall" released seven years after. Just with the difference that Floyd chose a very serious approach whereas Tull did it in a more ironical, tongue-in-cheek way, much in the spirit of Monthy Python. The lyrics are rather confusing if reading through them and much had been written between the lines. As far as I've got them it's all about critics on the mainstream society, its hypocrisy and its attitude to go "rather for the average than the exceptional". Taking his fictitious prodigy as an example Anderson was expressing his big concern about youth and in particular highly talented kids and their chances in a society where business comes before artistry. The music composed for this great masterpiece emphasizes very well the lyrics covering multiple genres like folk, jazz, classical and hard-edged psychedelic rock. Despite its complexity and being structured in two side-long tracks this record is surprisingly quite easily accessible and it's rather enjoyable than tedious to listen to it in one session. There aren't any obvious lengths but many highlights instead and the musicianship presented by all band members is just to be called brilliant. Finally I can just confirm previous reviews in saying that TaaB is certainly a masterpiece of progressive music and one of the definite must-have albums in any Prog collection!!