Jethro Tull

The last Jethro Tull album with any ambition beyond getting enough songs together for a full LP and a tour, A Passion Play evoked a violently mixed response from fans and critics alike when it first appeared. In the decades since, it was generally neglected by the record label that owned it as well as most rock historians, until the spring of 2003, when this remastered and expanded version showed up, its first generally available upgrade (a Mobile Fidelity gold-plated audiophile disc had shown up for a short time near the end of that label's existence). It literally runs circles around previous editions of the album, the guitars, keyboards, flute, sax, percussion, and bass all sounding incredibly close and loud, without any of the hiss that marred the earlier Chrysalis CD release, while every nuance of Ian Anderson's singing is evident as though one were listening to his vocal track alone -- indeed, this CD sounds the way this reviewer (who loves this album) always wished the LP could have sounded; when the saxophone comes in on the various musical climaxes and resolutions, it's one of the most vivid appearances of the instrument this side of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man." The annotation by Anderson explains how difficult getting the record together was, though he misses the chance to direct serious listeners to the Nightcap compilation to hear the abortive early sessions. The remastered CD comes with a Quicktime presentation of the four-minute video "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles," which was an integral part of A Passion Play's presentation on-stage; it's a clever and engaging pantomime, involving dancers and actors, that at last makes sense of the audio that one always heard on the LP and earlier CDs. It's all very easy to access and play, even for a computer illiterate like this reviewer. Overall, this release makes all prior editions of the album, including Mobile Fidelity's edition, obsolete and irrelevant. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide