THICK AS A BRICK

Many critics wrongly called Aqualung by Jethro Tull a concept album. Frontman Ian Anderson thought These chumps think Aqualung was a concept album? We'll show them a concept album. Thus, Thick As A Brick was born. The vast majority of the prog world was, and still is, beyond happy that Mr. Anderson had such an attitude. The album is split into two parts of the same song: the first being an upbeat mixture of folk and hard rock while the second is more sedate and darker. There are a few themes echoed throughout the album that provide the perfect amount of continuity without being at all repetitive. There's not much original to be said about this album but I figured I'd put my two cents in anyway.

Part 1 starts out with some calming yet upbeat acoustic guitar for a few measures before Ian Anderson begins his light singing of truly poetic lyrics. The rest of the band joins in due time maintaining a musically jolly atmosphere while the contrasting lyrics bite with a subtle bitter tongue. The music becomes a bit harder with the bassline leading the way after about 3 minutes. It maintains this heavy sound throughout the rest of the song with a few exceptions. This song is highly accessible and an absolute masterpiece. Part 2 is darker and more somber compared to Part 1 and, for the first two thirds of the song, it's a rather slow tempo (though far from boring mind you!). A brief spurt of energy comes in around the 15 minute mark then the song becomes rather hard-hitting, before finishing the off the last minute with a slowed down version of the opening of Part 1.

Technically speaking, there's nothing too difficult in this album but that doesn't matter one bit as the compositional skills and the interplay between various instruments are beyond superb. I recommend trying to find a copy of the vinyl with all the album artwork still intact because The St. Cleve Chronicle, a mock newspaper that comes with the album, is full of daring, outrageous and hilarious articles. I absolutely recommend Thick As A Brick to anyone with an interest in prog or even 70s rock.