Originally published by L.S. Media. April 5th 2012.
L.S. Media Rating *****
There will be those that tell you that the concept album died a painless death during the 1970’s, there will further still those that maintain there was a brief hurrah in the mid 1980’s, and without wishing to compound the issue, there will be the modern audience’s assertion that the 21st century has seen the genre stay vital, drawing breath and propagating and influencing others from Green Day and My Chemical Romance.
Whatever the point of view of the soothsayers and detractors of the concept album and of Progressive Rock in particular, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull not only manages to come up with an album of pure quality that will no doubt be idolised by those whose attention span goes past the three minute single but also delivers quite possibly the finest sequel in its truest unifying sense.
Thick as a Brick 2, or the continuing saga of Gerald Bostock or if you prefer the further musings of the greatest and electrifying flute player to ever conceive music that captures the imagination, shows that Gerald Bostock, the eponymous hero of Thick as a Brick is alive and well and looking at where his life could have taken him. Initially Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull wrote the album as a tongue in cheek response to audiences, fans and critics alike calling Aqualung the ultimate Progressive Rock Concept album. It wasn’t meant to be at all, but it stuck and with the impishness and devilish humour of Mephistophilis tempting the British music buyers in a Faustian pact that saw them proclaim the story of a nine year old boy’s poetry being lauded, feted and finally disbarred for profanity reach the very top of a creative high for the band and gave lovers of the concept album its greatest aural moment.
There are many moving moments within the album, nearly as many as there are tongue in cheek references to Ian’s own past and the 40 years between Gerald’s ultimate disgrace and the man on the verge of turning 50. In two specific parts, Gerald Goes Homeless and Gerald the Military Man there are distinct and touching homages that also hide the pain and forgotten misery of those left on the streets and those that are sometimes only remembered when they are flown home. In the songs’ case, via Royal Wootton Bassett, where they have been fighting IED’S and the Persian hordes, only to have the flag draped over them and saluted by the ordinary man or woman on the street.
Mulberry Walk and Confessional sees the what if’s and maybe’s played out to a conclusion in which Gerald’s possible pasts all play out with the homeless hero being picked up off the streets only to find unconventional love, Gerald the banker paying in time for his tax evasion and even the most ordinary Gerald suffering with the closure of his shop. This is the story of the everyday and no one does it better, no one would dare!
Ian Anderson is the wandering minstrel personified, flute in hand, a 40 year tale sang with great care and with the small wry smile that beguiles all that listen and watch, he is one of the master story tellers of the age. Wrapped in music that defies convention and proves that even after 40 years there is an insatiable appetite to find out whatever happened to Gerald Bostock and for a story to be told.
Ian D. Hall