ALBUM REVIEW: Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick

    Jethro Tull's 1971 Aqualung was the group's biggest success of their career yet, although it came with something that band leader Ian Anderson wasn't expecting - the idea that their work was a concept album about man and religion. Anderson would always disavow this, saying it was simply a collection of songs, although it sure seems like he was getting annoyed with this perpetual idea about "their concept album", so in response he made a real concept album, one purely intended to send up the idea of the whole thing - the concept in it of itself is to deride the idea of a concept album, while also poking plenty of healthy fun at progressive rock groups like Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (Amen, if you ask me). Ironically, in his attempt to make fun of the music press, the concept album, and progressive rock, Jethro Tull ended up creating one of the genre's greatest and most defining works. Thick as a Brick is not only brilliantly composed across multiple different segments, but also manages to have a killer sense of humor and even some semblance of unknowing brilliance with its unifying themes of old and young, rebellion, and uncertainty of the future. Perhaps its the album's ability to mock itself that makes it one of the greatest examples of progressive rock ever released.

    Thick as a Brick is a brilliantly out-there concept album, especially when one isn't aware that this entire thing is a complex bit. What is the concept? Read the front cover's news story of Little Milton's revoked award for his prize-winning "Thick as a Brick" poem, whose words make up the album's lyrics (if you're lucky enough to own a vinyl copy of this album, you'll get a full 12-page newspaper with even more gags). Even the inside story is self-aware, mentioning how it isn't one poem so much as various smaller poems strung together to seem impressive (much like how the album's "single song" is made up of various song movements and pieces pieced together). All of this, of course, adds to the album's feel - deeply rooted in its sense of humor, Thick as a Brick ranks as one of the funniest progressive rock albums ever, and it's this lack of taking itself seriously that's a serious high mark of the album - even progressive rock artists that I like take themselves a bit too seriously, so to have Tull openly mock themselves a bit makes for good fun, and who wouldn't find a line like "So where the hell was Biggles when you needed him last Saturday?" at least a little bit funny? It's more than just comedically written, too - a few persistent themes throughout the work peak their way through, even with the album's deliberately cryptic nature. There's a purveying concept of coming of age, societal rebellion, class structure, and the rigid attitude of the establishment that perpetuates a cycle. In many ways, the album plays like a fable - a young boy, split between two paths, ultimately follows the path of his father and assimilates into the very society he once fought against. Whether or not it was intentional, this wonderfully executed theme is alive and well on the album.

    The other triumph of Thick as a Brick is the complex musicality of the entire album, and it still may stand as one of the group's most impressive and fascinating works. With the album being split across effectively 13 small song segments, each with various different speeds and sometimes odd time signatures, the group's attempt to fall into the progressive rock category more than succeeds - sure, Aqualung may have been leaning on progressive rock a bit, but this full dive in for the sake of the joke is honestly brilliant. Of course, Ian Anderson's multi-instrumentalist talents coat many moments of this album, and I can't think of a time his flute playing has sounded any better (his solo at the start of "The Poet and the Painter" section is kind of magical, and certainly kickass). His vocal style is also the platonic ideal for the story that unfolds - he has a very peculiar, almost sarcastic tone of voice at time, but there's also a warmth to it that I think works wonderfully for both the album's epic scale and its sense of humor. Ian Anderson may be the MVP here in some ways, although the other members of Tull carry their weight just as much - John Evans' organ and piano playing is at its most dynamic on this release, whether he's playing with all the power he can on some moments or he's gently accompanying Anderson's acoustic work on a moment like "You Curl Your Toes". Martin Barre's guitar playing is also fantastical throughout, as is the steady work of bassist Jeffery Hammond and the dynamic drumming of Barriemore Barlow (not to mention a killer solo from him on "See There a Man Is Born"). They all come together brilliantly on the album in what may be the group's most impressive display of itself, and the album is all the better for it.

    Pure irony, isn't it, that the group's spoof of the progressive rock world and the expectations of the concept album ended up being some of the defining examples of both. To an extent, it's everything that's great about progressive rock (the expansive musical ideas and technical prowess) and more with its nearly unmatched creativity in its spoof and humor - it may be even more creative than the grandiose concepts before it. The end result of Thick as a Brick is not only a success as the very thing that Ian Anderson set out to do, but a remarkable album in its own right. Tull's first album-long suite is nothing short of an accomplishment, and quite possibly the greatest album they ever made - it's everything that I think of when I think "Jethro Tull".

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to Thick as a Brick.