Thick as a Brick 2
Thick as a Brick 2, abbreviated TAAB 2 (pronounced /tæb tuː/ by Anderson) and subtitled Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock?, is the fifth studio album by Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson, released in 2012 as a follow-up of Thick as a Brick, Jethro Tull's 1972 parody concept album. It entered the Billboard chart at No. 55.
| Thick as a Brick 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 2 April 2012[1] | |||
| Recorded | March 2011, November 2011 | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock | |||
| Length | 53:45 | |||
| Label | Chrysalis/EMI Records 50999 6 38726 2 0 F2-38726 | |||
| Producer | Ian Anderson | |||
| Ian Anderson chronology | ||||
| ||||
Concept overview
According to Anderson, TAAB 2 (which he pronounces /tæb tuː/) focuses on Gerald Bostock, the fictional boy genius author of the original album, forty years later. "I wonder what the eight-year-old Gerald Bostock would be doing today. Would the fabled newspaper still exist?"[2] The follow-up album presents five divergent, hypothetical life stories for Gerald Bostock, including a greedy investment banker, a homosexual homeless man, a soldier in the Afghan War, a sanctimonious evangelist preacher, and a most ordinary man who (married and childless) runs a corner store; by the end of the album, however, all five possibilities seem to converge in a similar concluding moment of gloomy or pitiful solitude.[3] In March 2012, to follow the style of the mock-newspaper cover (The St Cleve Chronicle and Linwell Advertiser) of the original Thick as a Brick album, an online newspaper was set up, simply titled StCleve.
Reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | [4] |
| PopMatters | 5/10[1] |
| Sputnik Music | 4.0/5[5] |
AllMusic gave three stars to the album, calling it: "cleaner and streamlined, not as indulgent or idealistic as [Anderson's] younger work, boasting a more sensible structure, yet it still bears all of his signatures from the flute to rambling folk-rock".[6]
The album debuted at No. 55 on the Billboard chart, at No. 13 in the German Albums Chart,[7] at No. 12 in the Finnish Album Chart,[8] at No. 19 in the Austrian Album Charts,[9] at No. 30 in the Norwegian Album Charts,[10] at No. 31 in the Swiss Album Charts,[11] at number No. 74 on the Canadian Albums Chart,[12] at No. 35 on the UK charts,[13] at No. 76 in the Dutch Album Chart[14] and at No. 99 on the Spanish charts.[15]
Live performances
Anderson performed the entire album live on tour in 2012.[16] In August 2014, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson released CD/DVD/Blu-ray Thick as a Brick - Live in Iceland. The concert was recorded in Reykjavík, Iceland on 22 June 2012 and featured complete Thick as a Brick and Thick as a Brick 2 performances by the Ian Anderson Touring Band.[17]
Track listing
The original Thick as a Brick consists of only two long tracks comprising a single song, while the TAAB 2 lists 17 separate songs merged into 13 distinct tracks (some labelled as medleys), although also all flowing together much like a single song.
All tracks are written by Ian Anderson.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "From a Pebble Thrown" | 3:05 |
| 2. | "Medley: Pebbles Instrumental / Might-Have-Beens" | 4:21 |
| 3. | "Medley: Upper Sixth Loan Shark / Banker Bets, Banker Wins" | 5:41 |
| 4. | "Swing It Far" | 3:28 |
| 5. | "Adrift and Dumfounded" | 4:25 |
| 6. | "Old School Song" | 3:07 |
| 7. | "Wootton Bassett Town" | 3:44 |
| 8. | "Medley: Power and Spirit / Give Till It Hurts" | 3:11 |
| 9. | "Medley: Cosy Corner / Shunt and Shuffle" | 3:37 |
| 10. | "A Change of Horses" | 8:04 |
| 11. | "Confessional" | 3:09 |
| 12. | "Kismet in Suburbia" | 4:17 |
| 13. | "What-ifs, Maybes and Might-Have-Beens" | 3:36 |
| Total length: | 53:45 | |
DVD
The 2-disc edition includes a DVD-9 with the following contents:
- Audio:
- 5.1 Surround Mix
- Super Quality 24-bit Stereo Mix
- Video:
- TAAB2 "The making of" Video
- Studio recording sessions, interviews and more
- The Lyric Reading Video (Anderson)
- DVD-ROM:
- Multilingual Lyric Translations (pdf files)
- www.StCleve.com Web Pages (pdf)
Personnel
- Musicians
- Ian Anderson – vocals, flutes, acoustic guitars
- Florian Opahle – electric guitar
- John O'Hara – accordion, Hammond organ, piano, keyboards
- Pete Judge – trumpet, flugelhorn, tenor horn, E-flat tuba
- Ryan O'Donnell – additional vocals
- David Goodier – bass guitar, glockenspiel
- Scott Hammond – drums, percussion
- Production
- Steven Wilson – mixing engineer
- Mike Downs – recording engineer
- Ian Anderson – liner notes
- Peter Mew – mastering engineer
Charts
| Chart (2012) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Billboard Top 200[18] | 55 |
| Top Rock Albums[18] | 18 |
| UK Albums Chart[19] | 35 |
| Hungarian Albums Chart[20] | 2 |
See also
References
- ^ a b Murphy, Sean (14 May 2012). "Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson: Thick As a Brick 2 < PopMatters". popmatters.com. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- ^ "Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson On Thick as a Brick 2, the Grammys And More". American Songwriter. 2 February 2012.
- ^ "New CD Release by Ian Anderson Revives the Prog Genre". 11 April 2012.
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "IAN ANDERSON Thick As A Brick 2: Whatever Happened To Gerald Bostock?". Allmusic.
- ^ "Ian Anderson - Thick as a Brick 2 (album review )". Sputnikmusic. 22 October 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
- ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine (10 April 2012). "Thick as a Brick 2 - Ian Anderson | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
- ^ "Die ganze Musik im Internet: Charts, News, Neuerscheinungen, Tickets, Genres, Genresuche, Genrelexikon, Künstler-Suche, Musik-Suche, Track-Suche, Ticket-Suche – musicline.de". musicline.de. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ^ "finnishcharts.com – Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson – TAAB2 – Thick As A Brick 2". finnishcharts.com. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ^ "Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson – TAAB2 – Thick As A Brick 2 – austriancharts.at". austriancharts.at. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ^ "norwegiancharts.com – Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson – TAAB2 – Thick As A Brick 2". norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ^ "Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson – TAAB2 – Thick As A Brick 2 – hitparade.ch". hitparade.ch. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ^ "CANOE - JAM! Music - SoundScan Charts". Jam.canoe.ca. 21 April 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
- ^ "The Official Charts Company – Thick As A Brick 2 by Ian Anderson Search". The Official Charts Company. 6 May 2013.
- ^ "dutchcharts.nl – Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson – TAAB2 – Thick As A Brick 2". dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ^ "spanishcharts.com – Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson – TAAB2 – Thick As A Brick 2". spanishcharts.com. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ^ . Archived from the original on 28 June 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
- ^ "Jethro Tull". Burningshed.com. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
- ^ a b "Thick as a Brick 2 - Ian Anderson | Awards". AllMusic. 10 April 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
- ^ MAHASZ – Magyar Hanglemezkiadók Szövetsége. mahasz.hu. 2013. ISBN 9781291292961. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
- ^ "UK Chart Yearbook 2012". Mahasz.hu. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
External links
- Promo video for Thick As a Brick 2 on YouTube
- Parish Newspaper for St. Cleve, Linwell, and Little Cruddock (formerly St. Cleve Chronicle)
- Smolko, Tim. Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013.