Jethro Tull – A ion Play

Really good songs and a great pressing however my main complaint would be the mixing and weird stereo sound...thankfully quite an easy record to find in charity shops.

I bought it when it first came out and loved it then, and still do! It's a Prog Masterpiece but is not quite as phenomenal as Thick As A Brick or Aqualung for very good reasons.
To properly understand the somewhat disted nature (in spots) of the album you have to understand how it was recorded and then released.
TAAB was recorded in one long uninterrupted inspired session where the band was on a roll and confident with their contributions and performances.
APP was first started on location at a famous Chateau studio in where the band actually slayed and slept during the recording process. Numerous technical problems , including infestations of bed bugs (!) ensued, causing the band to flee back to the U.K. to scrap all of the recordings and start all over.
Thus the second attempt to compose and record the LP was rushed and tainted by the aggravations caused by the Chateau disaster. The band was rushed because they were now behind schedule on recording, with an already booked tour looming in the near future. (Subsequently the initial recordings which were later released after the fact, and were dubbed as the "Chateau d'Isaster" tapes).
Regardless, I ( and a host of other Prog Rock fans) still think its a masterpiece, though challenging and a bit disted at times, and holds up well over 50 years later as a brilliant piece of Prog HIstory!
Enjoy! I sincerely doubt we will ever live to hear anything remotely like this again! So creative, so complex, and so rewarding once you get a feel for it. (Not unlike say Larks Tongues in Aspic by King Crimson which I think most would agree, is not exactly the most accessible album to appreciate upon first listening!).

Best record l ever heard. A masterpiece. I've been listening to it with the same excitement for the last 48 years. And l love "The Hare..."

Tull made a name for themselves as a hard-gigging blues band with a flautist standing on one leg (although he did have two fully functioning lower limbs). They went on to sell a shed load of albums throughout the 70's, had a No. 1 lp in Stand Up, and even had a few Christmas hits as well. For some strange reason, one of my favourite records of theirs is A ion Play, the forgotten little sister to the behemoth that was Thick As A Brick.
Playing catchup with bands that were big before you were can have its pitfalls. Instead of first hearing albums chronologically, it depended on when they were begged, borrowed, stolen or even purchased as to the order of their listening. In the old days, with no easily available opinion formers, the opportunity to listen without preconceptions was available.
Thus I got to hear A ion Play long before I heard TAAB, and this has obviously coloured my judgement. Although structurally similar, it does not have a running motif, and is altogether a harder listen. There is the infuriating Story of the Hare Who Has Lost His Spectacles topping and tailing the break, an attempt to subvert the medium of the album or a space filler; you decide. The record is long enough as it is, clocking in at 40+ minutes, and would probably be improved without it. The Jethros have obviously bought some new kit, as there are quite a few strange bleeps, blips and squelches randomly interspersed along the way. Jazz even sticks its oar in mid-way through side two. A veritable smorgasbord of an album, it probably pleases no one, and yet I like it.
It suffers from being at the end of a long line of consistently classic Tull albums, from This Was to TAAB, and they would only sporadically hit those heights again. Early editions come with g/f sleeve and booklet on the green Chrysalis label, and are still reasonably priced.

SMOKIN"! smokin'! SMOKIN'! SMOKIN'! smokin'! SMOKIN'! SMOKIN'! ouch SMOKIN !