Ian Anderson: Taab 2: Thick As A Brick 2

It’s amazing what a well-constructed album of songs can do for the listener. I’m not talking about a set of songs that changes some aspect of your life or thought process but songs that when you listen to you just enjoy regardless of how many times you listen to them. Ian Anderson has done that with the album Taab 2: Thick As A Brick 2. When I first listened to this whole album I was amazed at how grand the album sounds. Each song tells this story, a story that has a way of capturing your attention. Not only that but the whole album is the main story that takes the individual songs to tell the whole story. Taab 2 started off being a CD that I wanted to listen to because it was a new Jethro Tull’s Thick As A Brick but it turned into an adventure that I went on.

I didn’t know it before this but the first Thick As A Brick had used a fictitious character of a child named Gerald Bostock. That is who was supposed to have written the album though it was really Ian Anderson and now Ian Anderson or I should say the 50 year old Gerald Bostock has come back to write the second half of his story. Thick As A Brick 2 is a really fun album to listen to because of how it’s a story and also the musical sections. Ian Anderson has an amazing way of using his vocals to tell a story that sound both like singing and speaking. He has a very strong voice but in a soft manner. You can hear how sure he is with what he is singing and how he is singing it. Because of that the songs have this heft to them that make them sound strong.

Along with that the instrumental sections of this album is just as amazing as the vocals and the grand lyrics. The structure of the beats and tempos being used with all the different instruments create a sound that is yet another story. Even if Ian Anderson didn’t sing, which there is a good amount of time on the album that he don’t, that the instruments tell the story. Going from a quick, hard paced rhythm with the drums to suddenly being a slow guitar strumming. Then there’s the flute, that’s right Ian Anderson has the flute, and it’s the flute that gives the songs their grand story like sound and feel. I think the flute is the driving force in making these songs sound as good as they do. Though with the way the format of the songs, the well played instruments and vocals have been able to form into an album that captured my attention the multiple times that I listened to it. Taab 2: Thick As A Brick 2 does a good job at telling the story of Gerald Bostock.
 

CD Images

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