Jethro Tull-A Passion Play (1973)

In 1972 Jethro Tull had published his first conceptual work, "Thick As a Brick", a kind of humorous exercise halfway between progressive rock, hard rock and jazz and in response to Ian Anderson's own response to various questions raised in those years.
On the one hand, the criticism had described the previous album "Aqualung" as a concept album, something that Anderson himself would deny outright, on the other, the prevailing fashion in the early 70's of publishing pompous and progressive albums and, on the other hand, the demand that his own record company asked the band; make a record of those characteristics.
Thus Ian Anderson would embark on a work that would be complex and of the highest quality, both musical and theatrical.
The success of this magnificent album, considered a work of art within progressive rock, would lead to a second and more complex work published a year later "A Passion Play", which is even richer musically speaking and more elaborate than the previous one, and although the letters are the darkest and the most twisted that Anderson himself has never written, they include direct quotes or indirect references to biblical texts such as the Apocalypse or the "Divine Comedy by Dante.
In the 45 minutes that the album lasts, we find superb music that recounts the outline of the medieval "Passions Plays" (popular theatrical performances that were made at Easter to represent the passion of Christ).
Anderson would take this theatrical scheme to represent the modern human being, who throughout the play dies, is put on trial, visits heaven, then hell and in an uncertain ending leaves everything to the imagination, where he is reborn, reincarnated or resurrects.
"A Passion Play" is undoubtedly one of the most complex albums, both musical and in the concept of the lyric and theatrical in the entire history of rock, which however was ruthlessly beaten by the critics, but which would obtain absolute success in the United States and a great reception in Britain