THICK AS A BRICK

Thick as a Brick is the fifth studio album from Jethro Tull. Jethro Tull was one of the first prog related bands I ever heard and as a consequence I have a special relationship with the band. My brother had these three albums: Stand Up, Aqualung and Songs From the Wood and for many years they were the only Jethro Tull albums I listened to. There came a time in my life when I began collecting progressive rock albums in a systematic way and of course I also purchased the full discography from Jethro Tull along the way. It was first then I realized how many different albums and different styles Jethro Tull has done in their career. I always thought they were a great band but now I found that they were unique and outstanding. Thich as a Brick came as a surprise for me. I had never heard of the album before ( I was a young teenager at the time, I hope I´m forgiven) and the idea of one song ( in two parts) filling up the playing time of a whole album was very new to me. I played this album to bits and it soon became my favorite from Jethro Tull and it still ranks among my alltime favorite progressive rock albums.

The music on Thick as a Brick is progressive rock with a folky touch. Ian Anderson´s flute playing is beautiful and challenging. But the flute only occurs occasionally. There are other features on the album that are even more remarkable like the acoustic guitar playing, the strong and varied rythm section and the organ from John Evans. The lyrics are great and humerous. The composition is not extremely complex but definitely progressive and varied. The song is quite obviously made up of many smaller songs and put together afterwards which is not my favorite long song style. As opposed to many other long songs this concept works brilliantly on Thick as a Brick though.

The musicianship is excellent on the album and it finally seemed that Jethro Tull had found a stabile lineup ( not for long though).

The production is very good and everything is clear in the mix.

This is one of the few classic progressive rock albums that everyone has at least listened to once and everyone has an opinion about. Personally I greatly enjoy this album and it´s a deserved 5 star album in my book. It´s not a completely perfect album but it has it´s own charm and it´s unique. I´d say this is one of the best places to start if you´re curious about progressive rock. I know it was for me.