Description

EMI Swindon press made after 1994

Benefit was the album on which the Jethro Tull sound solidified around folk music, abandoning blues entirely. Beginning with the opening number, With You There To Help Me, Anderson adopts his now-familiar, slightly mournful folksinger/sage persona, with a rather sardonic outlook on life and the world; his acoustic guitar carries the melody, joined by Martin Barres electric instrument for the crescendos. This would be the model for much of the material on Aqualung and especially Thick as a Brick, although the acoustic/electric pairing would be executed more effectively on those albums. Here the acoustic and electric instruments are merged somewhat better than they were on Stand Up (on which it sometimes seemed like Barres solos were being played in a wholly different venue), and as needed, the electric guitars carry the melodies better than on previous albums. Most of the songs on Benefit display pleasant, delectably folk-like melodies attached to downbeat, slightly gloomy, but dazzlingly complex lyrics, with Barres guitar adding enough wattage to keep the hard rock listeners very interested. To Cry You a Song, Son, and For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me all defined Tulls future sound: Barres amp cranked up to ten (especially on Son), coming in above Anderson’s acoustic strumming, a few unexpected changes in tempo, and Anderson spouting lyrics filled with dense, seemingly profound imagery and statements. As on Stand Up, the group was still officially a quartet, with future member John Evan (whose John Evan Band had become the nucleus of Jethro Tull two years before) appearing as a guest on keyboards; his classical training proved essential to the expanding of the groups sound on the three albums to come.

Track listing:
1. With You There To Help Me
2. Nothing To Say
3. Alive And Well And Living In
4. Son
5. For Michael Collins Jeffrey And Me
6. To Cry You A Song
7. A Time For Everything
8. Inside
9. Play In Time
10. Sossity: Youre A Woman