Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick (1972)

Thick as a Brick, (Jethro Tull, 1972) is not just one of the best works of Jethro Tull as a band (peaked No.1 on U.S. Billboard Pop Albums Chart), but one of the most unique albums I have come across as well. It comes in a phase in Jethro Tull's life when they're at their peak after a successful Aqualung, and definitely marking a transition into the progressive rock genre, hints of which can be seen from Stand Up (1969) itself.
Being a concept album, it consists of a single track, spanning just under 44 minutes (and the album being progressive in that sense as well), with a vast range of sounds, as Ian Anderson himself says, "sometimes lifting, sometimes soaring". It is most well-known perhaps for its innovation in having a mock newspaper entitled "St. Cleve Chronicle" as an LP cover which help one to get a hint to the extremely complex and mind-boggling lyrics penned by a prodigious eight-year old Gerald Bostock who features on the front page of the "Chronicle" (actually an incarnation of Ian Anderson himself). The lyrics and the sound scheme is extremely complex, and no theme can be pinpointed, like it can be in Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall or The Who's Tommy or Jethro Tull's own most celebrated album Aqualung. It is possibly simply a hodgepodge of the themes dealt with in all the above works.
Possibly, it is an attack on everything mainstream, which is indicated by the first lines: "My words but a whisper - your deafness a shout. I may make you feel but I can't make you think." - beginning with mainstream attitudes towards children to art to war. The words are typically Anderson, reminiscent of Aqualung and Stand Up, full of satire, challenging the mainstream throughout the epic with effects such as "See there! A son is born…". Not only is "The St. Cleve Chronicle" a must read for its cleverness, the album is a must hear for the range in variations in a single track never heard before, impressive jamming in between, all united by the signature Anderson flute. And of course,
"So you ride yourselves over the fields and
You make all your animal deals and
Your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick."

Exceptional. Wholesome. Complete. Satiating.

See also:
Thick as a Brick lyrics.
The 12-page St. Cleve Chronicle.