THICK AS A BRICK

There's not much to write about this without breaking down nearly every minute of the two pieces, and I do not want to do that. What I will say is that this album...simply worked immediately. I never get bored during any part of this, my attention never fades. I never get bored of Ian Anderson's playful and wonderful flute solos and flute parts, nor of the wonderful acoustic melodies, nor of the high quality drumming all around. Ian Anderson is truly a master of pleasing and lovely floating melodies. His voice is the perfect blend of edge with serenity, as is the whole album. Whereas Aqualung was much more of a rocker than TaaB, this album still retains some of that edge while focusing considerably more on subtleties.

I don't even know what to write about this that hasn't been said already. Whether it's a jazz flute style solo, a hard rock section, soft acoustic, xylophone parts or whatever, it all rocks. This album is perfect.