A PASSION PLAY

A Passion Play ? 1973 (3.4/5) 11 ? Best Song: You tell me. Ugh, not the middle section, though. Fuck spectacles And, of course if you're going to write a masterpiece or two, you might as well destroy your legacy by going totally overboard immediately after; go hog wild, man! Oh, how some folks will praise Thick, then lament over the languid existence of A Passion Play. I don't fully agree with their enmity toward the album, but I can see the massive drop in quality, too. In fact, we're back to what was wrong with the 1960's releases ? taking an old, already established genre and adding flutes to it but not doing anything original. They practically sway their fine hand over prog rock and help in making and establishing it, then immediately forget what taste is. Oh, I certainly dig the album. Ian only grows more defined as a vocalist, and even if the lyrics are so heinously over the top they lose all applicable meaning, it doesn't stop them from still retaining the strong glue that binds together a group of miscreants such as this. Again it's one mammoth tune broken into side 1 and side 2. The music takes a minor hit but it's on the more lush side of things. What is the primary difference? Well, the musical ideas are more barren. It's the same symphonic pomp rocking thing as last year, only less defined. I will grant them that the primary acoustic folk melody they present throughout the course of the first ten minutes or so is solid stuff. They jam heavily when they want to, still, even if it's a case of 'going through the motions'. In fact, I don't see the real reason to rate the album much lower than Thick as a Brick, except for one minor mishap smack in the middle of the album. This ain't no half minute drum doodle, either. It's a fully fledged short story entitled 'The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles'. If that makes you cringe, you should. The whole affair has this obnoxious accent. Makes me almost hate the whole damn record, but once it's over (it ain't that bad, I guess) the rest of the album rides as smoothly as the first part. Passion Play is fun, entertaining, well performed, unoriginal, and frustrating. Take that for what you will.