Жетро Талл – «Адамзат құмарлығы» альбомы

1973 album by Jethro Tull

A Passion Play is the sixth studio album by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull, released in July 1973 in both the UK and US. Following in the same style as the band's previous album Thick as a Brick (1972), A Passion Play is a concept album comprising individual songs arranged into a single continuous piece of music (which was split into two parts across the original vinyl release's two sides). The album's concept follows the spiritual journey of a recently deceased man (Ronnie Pilgrim) in the afterlife, exploring themes of morality, religion and good and evil. The album's accompanying tour was considered the high water mark of Jethro Tull's elaborate stage productions, involving a full performance of the album accompanied by physical props, sketches and projected video. A Passion Play was negatively received by critics upon its initial release. However, the album was a commercial success, becoming Jethro Tull's second number one album in the United States.

Following the release of the critically and commercially successful Thick as a Brick in 1972, Jethro Tull made the decision to record their next album at the Château d'Hérouville studios in Hérouville, France, known in the 1970s for being frequented by artists such as Pink Floyd, Elton John and T. Rex. The band were persuaded by their management and accountants to record their next album in tax exile outside of the UK in order to avoid what Anderson described as "a pretty scary tax regime" of the time. The band planned to make a double album, with concepts as varied as the meaning of life, music criticism and the comparison between the man and animal world. Upon arrival at the Château, however, the band faced a variety of challenges which made the recording sessions difficult, ranging from technical issues with the studio equipment to bug infested beds and food poisoning epidemics, causing Anderson to give the Château the nickname "Château d'Isaster" The album is notable for heavily featuring soprano saxophone played by Anderson, often in place of his famous flute playing. Anderson expressed distaste for the instrument, saying that "It wasn't difficult to learn to play it a bit, but I didn't practice enough, I wasn't trained and it hurt my lip. I hated the fiddling about with reeds, the fact that it was all wet and soggy, straight off I really didn't enjoy playing the instrument." A Passion Play is described in its album liner notes as though it were a staged theatrical "play" in four acts. Of this album, "the lyrics themselves are extremely complicated, the story is often unclear, and much is left to the individual's interpretation." A basic narrative plot can be loosely interpreted from the lyrics, liner notes, and "programme" of A Passion Play, centring on everyman protagonist Ronnie Pilgrim, who is named only in the programme. Anderson described his conceptual inspiration for A Passion Play as "A fascination that I had about the possibility of a hereafter, that touches upon the conventions of popular religion, and Christianity in particular. It recognizes that age old conflict between good and bad, God and the Devil, and tries to bring it to some theatrical life, to give character, to give expression, to give I suppose a sense of vulnerability and less than perfect sense regarding the identities of the personifications of good and evil. But basically it's a kind of slightly tongue in cheek look at what might happen when you die." After a long winded and bizarre evaluation process, the sardonic jury concludes that they "won't cross [Pilgrim] out", suggesting that he has led a mostly decent life and so will be admitted into Heaven, which corresponds with the sudden start of a cheerful "Forest Dance" melody (Act 2). At this time, the main plot is interrupted by an unrelated, spoken word comedic interlude (narrated by Jeffrey Hammond with an exaggerated Lancashire accent) backed by instrumentation. Presented as an absurd fable, the interlude details (with much wordplay) the failure of a group of anthropomorphic animals to help a hare find his missing eyeglasses. The "Forest Dance" melody resumes, and Ronnie Pilgrim now appears in Heaven, two days after his judgment at the viewing room, communicating two unexpected thoughts: "I'll go to the foot of our stairs" (an expression of surprise) and "pie in the sky" (an expression of scepticism about the fulfilment of a reward). Pilgrim's dissatisfaction with Heaven appears to be linked to its mundane atmosphere where most of its residents endlessly reminisce, chronically obsessing over the living. Therefore, unable to adapt, Pilgrim goes to G. Oddie & Son to frankly request a relocation to Hell, feeling that he has a "right to be wrong". about his dilemma and, having sampled and rejected both extremes of his afterlife options, he finally stands on a Stygian shore as a "voyager into life". On this beach, other people and animals also prepare to "renew the pledge of life's long song". The final triumphant lyrics include the phrases "ever burning fire", "ever door", "ever life", and moving "from the dark into ever day", so that the play concludes with a strong implication of eternal rebirth (Act 4).

Upon its original release, it received generally negative reviews. Stephen Holden, writing for Rolling Stone, was broadly negative, saying that the album "strangles under the tonnage of its pretensions — a jumble of anarchic, childishly precocious gestures that are intellectually and emotionally faithless to any idea other than their own esoteric non logic"; feeling, overall, that, despite the band being "truly virtuosic in the manner of a polished chamber ensemble" and some moments, such as "those interludes that feature Anderson’s extraordinary flute playing" and two "short pastoral sections" that were "especially lovely", the album was "expensive, tedious nonsense". New Musical Express considered the album as "the fall" of Jethro Tull. Even Chris Welch of Melody Maker had a bad impression, stating "Music must touch the soul. A Passion Play rattles with emptiness". Lester Bangs, writing for Creem Magazine, stated that he became "totally bamboozled" after hearing the album. Bangs concluded: "I almost like it, even though it sort of irritates me. Maybe I like it because it irritates me. But that's my problem". Record World said that "the music is expectedly rich and imaginative, if somewhat challenging." Despite the reviews, A Passion Play sold well enough to reach No. 1 on the charts in the United States and Canada. The album also had good sales in Germany and Norway, where it reached No. 5. In the United Kingdom it reached No. 16. The 2013 box A Passion Play: an Extended Performance achieved the Nº 48 in the Top Rock Albums.

Jethro Tull's business manager, Terry Ellis, announced in Melody Maker that the band would retire from live performances in response to negative reviews of the album and concerts. This was just a publicity stunt of which the band had no knowledge; Anderson felt it made them look petulant and brought them the wrong sort of publicity. A three star retrospective review by Bruce Eder for AllMusic was gentle in its judgement, saying that "the music puts it over successfully, a dazzling mix of old English folk and classical material, reshaped in electric rock terms. The band is at its peak form, sustaining the tension and anticipation of this album length piece across 45 minutes, although the music runs out of inspiration about five minutes before it actually ends". Paul Stump, in his History of Progressive Rock, said that "the writing is militantly episodic", with some beautiful moments but an overemphasis on novelty and an overall incoherent sequence of themes that makes the album bemusing and disorienting rather than engaging to the listener. Some members of the band, in retrospect, expressed distaste for the album, including Anderson, saying that "I've always thought that A Passion Play suffered more than any other album I've ever made from being over arranged and over produced and over cooked" and that Jethro Tull fans who call the album their favourite album of all time "should of course remain in the establishment for the criminally insane in which they probably already reside". Barre has said that he believes that the album exists in "the bottom third of Jethro Tull albums".

Early concepts for the album were developed at the recording studio Château d'Hérouville, which the band, due to difficulties at the studio, playfully referred to as "Chateau D'Isaster". Previously unreleased recordings from these sessions were first offered to public under the title "The Chateau D'Isaster Tapes" on the 1988 compilation 20 Years of Jethro Tull (three recordings) and then in the 1993 compilation Nightcap: The Unreleased Masters 1973–1991. Nightcap included almost all the recordings with additional flute solos by Ian Anderson. The full recordings were released in 2014, in the box A Passion Play: An Extended Performance. The box contains previously unreleased tracks such as "Sailor" and "The Big Top" along with the aforementioned "Skating Away" and "Critique Oblique".

These titles were provided by Anderson for the 1973 DJ pressing of the LP, though they were not included for the standard pressing. The gold Ultradisc Original Master Recording CD of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (1998) contains cueable tracks for each title, but the standard CD releases contain only one or two tracks, depending on the version. All songs written by Ian Anderson unless stated otherwise.