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 highly acclaimed 1972 parody concept album. It entered the Billboard chart at No. 55.

Thick as a Brick 2
Studio album by
Ian Anderson
Released2 April 2012[1]
RecordedMarch 2011, November 2011
GenreProgressive rock
Length53:45
LabelChrysalis/EMI Records
50999 6 38726 2 0
F2-38726
ProducerIan Anderson
Ian Anderson chronology
Ian Anderson Plays the Orchestral Jethro Tull
(2005)		 Thick as a Brick 2
(2012)		 Homo Erraticus
(2014)

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
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
PopMatters5/10[1]
Sputnik Music4.0/5[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
Main article: Thick as a Brick - Live in Iceland

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.TitleLength
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 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
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
  1. Murphy, Sean (14 May 2012). "Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson: Thick As a Brick 2 < PopMatters". popmatters.com. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
  2. "Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson On Thick as a Brick 2, the Grammys And More". American Songwriter. 2 February 2012.
  3. "New CD Release by Ian Anderson Revives the Prog Genre". 11 April 2012.
  4. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "IAN ANDERSON Thick As A Brick 2: Whatever Happened To Gerald Bostock?". Allmusic.
  5. "Ian Anderson - Thick as a Brick 2 (album review )". Sputnikmusic. 22 October 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  6. Stephen Thomas Erlewine (10 April 2012). "Thick as a Brick 2 - Ian Anderson | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  7. "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.
  8. "finnishcharts.com – Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson – TAAB2 – Thick As A Brick 2". finnishcharts.com. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  9. "Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson – TAAB2 – Thick As A Brick 2 – austriancharts.at". austriancharts.at. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  10. "norwegiancharts.com – Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson – TAAB2 – Thick As A Brick 2". norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  11. "Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson – TAAB2 – Thick As A Brick 2 – hitparade.ch". hitparade.ch. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  12. "CANOE - JAM! Music - SoundScan Charts". Jam.canoe.ca. 21 April 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  13. "The Official Charts Company – Thick As A Brick 2 by Ian Anderson Search". The Official Charts Company. 6 May 2013.
  14. "dutchcharts.nl – Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson – TAAB2 – Thick As A Brick 2". dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  15. "spanishcharts.com – Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson – TAAB2 – Thick As A Brick 2". spanishcharts.com. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  16. ""Thick as a Brick" Played in Special 2012 Tour". Archived from the original on 28 June 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  17. "Jethro Tull". Burningshed.com. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  18. "Thick as a Brick 2 - Ian Anderson | Awards". AllMusic. 10 April 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  19. "MAHASZ – Magyar Hanglemezkiadók Szövetsége". mahasz.hu. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
  20. "UK Chart Yearbook 2012". Mahasz.hu. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.