Description
Well let me start by saying that if you're sick of the music that's popular, uninspired, predictable, overplayed, and safely within the skill level of any old musician, then A Passion Play is your cure! It is the opposite of all these things. On the other hand, if you are perfectly happy just hearing "Honky Tonk Women" 5 times a day on the radio then stay AWAY from A Passion Play.
As a continuation of their parody of concept albums, Ian A. and Co. created this piece with the obvious intent of challenging themselves and their listeners to the utmost extent. It is brilliant and ridiculous, triumphantmore… and melancholy, satisfying and disappointing. The music will lead up to what you hope will be a thrilling climax, and then completely die. It is easily one of the most densely inaccessible albums ever recorded. However, it is also ingenious. Another reviewer was right in saying that basically all the other rock & roll innovators combined could never have concocted such a ludicrously awesome creative masterpiece as this. The playing here is completely off the hook; the best you'll ever hear on a rock album, especially considering the extreme difficulty of the music. The lineup of Anderson, Barre, Hammond, Evans, and Barlow was, in my opinion, the best in Tull history. Ian's singing is so rich and full that his vocals on earlier albums just seem thin and tinny in comparison. The saxes and tastefully utilized synths are a nice addition, giving it a very distinctly different flavor from Thick as a Brick. In fact, I would say that the segment subtitled "The Overseer Overture" contains one of the saxophone's defining moments in rock music (not to mention that's the best part of the album too).
You won't find a lot of long instrumental solos here, as one might expect from more quintessential prog like ELP's Tarkus. It's all very tight and well thought-out. There are virtually none of the trippy, boring organ solos and white noise stuff often found in prog, which is a testament to Ian's strict no-drugs policy with band members. The lyrics are just nuts. Don't even try to make sense of them on the first time listening. I've listened to it like 20 times and I'd still be in the dark if not for the helpful online forums dedicated to deciphering its meaning.
I also find APP to be very funny. The music sounds like it would be perfectly at home during some kind of deranged circus act, and the lyrics contain endless oddities and wordplays. Everyone complains about the pointlessness of Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond's The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles. It's just a bit of fun, really, and it is pretty funny in a Monty Python sort of way. All in all, I'd say that this should not be your first Tull album, but fans should have it. Just remember: if you don't end up liking it at first, don't write it off as [...]. Give it some time and you may just find it to be a very rewarding piece of music after all.
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A Passion Play - Part 1 |
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A Passion Play - Part 2 |
Info:
- Category:
- Music > Albums
- Case Type:
- CD
- Release Type:
- Retail
- Comments:
- 1 read add
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Cover Info:
- Title:
- Jethro Tull - A Passion Play (2003) Retail CD
- Part:
- Front
- Dimensions:
- 1033 x 1024 px
- Size:
- 185 KB
- Downloads:
- 2201 (0 today)
- Uploaded:
- 18/03/07 by zappman
- Quality Rating:
-
- Currently 4/5 Stars.
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Rated 4 of 5 (1 votes). Click CDs to vote!
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