Jethro Tull- Thick as a Brick

After the success of Aqualung, the Tull was ready for their most ambitious project yet. Drummer Clive Bunker, however, left the group to be replaced by Barriemore Barlow. The new Anderson/Barre/Hammond/Barlow/Evans line up generally is the best known for Jethro Tull. For the 1972 album Thick as a Brick, the band decided to go all out with one 44 minute epic of progressive rock. supposedly, this song is a poem written by child genius Jeremy Bostock, and it was disqualified from a contest for being to downbeat and cynical.

The piece starts out 100% acoustic, with just Ian Anderson singing with his guitar and flute (later piano). This part of the song's lyrics lay down the themes that are going to dominate the song: class conflict, emotion, and how the wise look down upon fools. About the 3 minute mark, the electric guitar, drums, and bass come in and they go into a sonic attack, mirroring the attack of the upper class as they try to civilize the poor. The heavy organ really seals the mood. From here, the song takes a path through guitar solos, hymn like lyrics about mending the evil ways of the poor and the foolish, and crazy blasts of flute here and there. After the 12 minute mark, it becomes more and more organ dominated, and the vocals become a bit sparser. Around the point where the record has to flip over, the chaos comes to a halt and fades out. However, on side two the body of the song resumes with haste. The second half of the song has more drum antics than the first, and some non-sequiteur passages. While the instrumental themes vary little, the melody changes just a little bit frequently to keep things interesting and to prevent boredom. As things go on, there's more acoustic passages, and a general claustrophobia. As the song enters the finishing stretch, it goes for a grand medieval punch, and has all fo Prog signatures: time changes, tempo changes, strange instruments, and reflective lyrics.

Thick as a Brick will come down like a brick the first time you hear it. The album is packed with extreme amounts of panache and vigor. While certainly not Tull's most accessible work, it is by far the most rich and rewarding, as the incredible length of the song "Thick as a Brick" leaves something new to be discovered every listen.

A behemoth of Progressive Rock that is not to be missed under any conditions. Grade: A+