RATINGS: A = must own B = buy it C= average D = yawn F = puke

Jethro Tull – Thick as a Brick (40th Anniversary Edition)
Chrysalis Records

www.jethro-tull.com

Rating: B+

It has been over 14,000 days since Ian Anderson wrote his disgruntled masterpiece. Jethro Tull’s colorful front man was irritated that critics were saying Aqualung was a concept album. It was not and to show them what a proper concept album was, he created Thick as a Brick, a concept album with a twist.

The album came with a fictitious newspaper that revealed a child named Gerald Bostock wrote the lyrics to the album. The whole marketing campaign was very tongue-in-cheek and hilarious. The music was not funny, however, it was brilliant. The album hit # 1 on the Billboard Charts and remains such an important album for the band we are still writing about it, four decades down the road.

The good news is that this edition features a new 5.1 stereo mix, mixed by Steven Wilson, plus a DVD containing DTS & Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix, the original newspaper over 40 pages, an article by Classic Rock s Dom Lawson, rare photos from photographers Didi Zill and Robert Ellis, recording and touring mementos and much more, all contained in a hardback book.

The music sounds great and the packaging is wonderful. What would have been the ultimate would have been a video DVD, or Blu-ray of the Thick as a Brick 1 & 2 tour that the band just completed…but I suppose we will have to wait and buy that one separately when it is released. Until then, no worries, as this is one of Tull’s best musical moments.

By Jeb Wright