What’s the scoop on Ian Anderson’s TaaB2? Worth an immediate unseen reflex purchase?
It’s been out for several months, so it’s too late for “immediate.” But it’s very good, and well worth the purchase. It is not in the same monolithic format as the original TAAB–it has individual songs. The connections to the original are the reappearance of several musical themes from the 1972 album (plus one or two from elsewhere in the Tull catalog) and the revisiting of the Gerald Bostock character from the album cover, which is taken surprisingly seriously.
I’m waiting to see it live before buying the album. I saw Tull perform Thick as a Brick in Albany, NY back in 1972, and have long been awaiting the sequel.
Ian Anderson is now touring in support of the new “Thick as a Brick,” and will be here in Austin this fall. I think he’ll be playing the album in its entirety. (He is booked as Ian Anderson, not as Jethro Tull.)
Has anyone seen him perform recently? How does he sound, and is the show worth seeing?