[Suzerain of Sheol]

2. "Thick as a Brick" -- Jethro Tull

Not even sure where to begin. It's a glorious, absurd 42-minute deconstruction of concept albums in classic rock. The song's irony and refusal to be about *anything* -- all the while seeming to explore themes of the social necessity of war, the passage from youth to adulthood and the bequeathal of cultural mores from one generation to the next -- is a wonderful troll of pretty much anyone who ever listened to it. Even the fake newspaper that came with the original album was a masterpiece of subtle humor.

It is by far the most complex song I've ever encountered, the way the music adapts itself to fit the winding and wheeling peculiarities of the lyrics. There's really nothing like it. It fulfills the essential task of a deconstruction by stripping away the curtains of convention and commenting via the absence of commentary. An astonishingly intricate piece of music.

I couldn't possibly count how many times I've listened to it, it's been something I've always returned to since first hearing it some 14 or 15 years ago. Even if the meaning of it seems obscure the first (few dozen) times you listen to it, there's always that sense that there is *something* being said, and I'm honestly doubtful I've even scratched the surface in my attempts to analyze it.