A PASSION PLAY

1) It takes itself too seriously and fails to live up to its pretentions 2) It's short on strong melodies/themes 3) It sounds uninspired and directionless

A Passion Play was released smack in the middle of the band's golden era, preceded by classics such as Aqualung and Thick as a Brick and followed by strong the although maybe underrated offerings War Child and Minstrel in the Gallery. So, it SHOULD be good! How could a band at the hights of their powers NOT create another masterpiece? It's a mystery!

I think the problem might be that the band was trying too hard to create another "big work". They just didn't have it in them. The ambition level was too high and the ideas not strong enough. The lyrics are mostly large quantities of words with very little content. All is not poetry that's hard to follow! A collection of songs might have been a much better idea, as the outtakes released later indicates.

As it stands, A Passion Play is great in pathches but fails as a whole. In parts (e.g. "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles") it's outright embarrasing.

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