Thick As A Brick 2!

Then again, misguided sequels might be precisely what the album spoofs. A piece about Gerald Bostock discovering that what's endearing and precocious coming from a small boy is just plain juvenile and irritating when it's coming from a 50-year-old could have potential for some laughs.

I mean, Steve Wilson being involved and the project being inspired by a conversation with Derek Shulman of Gentle Giant fame ought to be good signs. But I'm left unconvinced. The bit which keeps coming back to me is on one hand, the resurrection of the Jethro Tull name with so many key players absent (including Barre, who granted wasn't a member of the original lineup but has been key to the Tull sound ever since he joined), and on top of that the resurrection of the Thick as a Brick name for the sake of a sequel.

I mean, the concept of the album could be interesting - a piece in which Gerald Bostock looks back on his life and ponders whether he's manage to live his life according to the ideas he set out in his youth, and (if he concludes that he didn't) whether that's actually a personal failing of his or simply a matter of time and experience giving him a different perspective, now that could be interesting territory to explore. But having seen so, so many instances lately of people putting stuff out simply to trade on the reputation of past successes I'm wary. I'm especially wary since, as so many others have pointed out, the original was meant to be a spoof - so the sequel risks becoming either on the one hand a spoof of a spoof, and too self-referential to be interesting with it, or on the other hand taking the whole thing much more seriously than the band did for the original TAAB and so completely failing to recapture what made it so special in the first place.