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 | ||||
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Studio album by Ian Anderson | ||||
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 | ||||
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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.
Review scores | |
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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]
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]
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 |
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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 |
The 2-disc edition includes a DVD with the following contents:
Chart (2012) | Peak position |
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Billboard Top 200[18] | 55 |
Top Rock Albums[18] | 18 |
UK Albums Chart[19] | 35 |
Hungarian Albums Chart[20] | 2 |
Authority control |
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