STAND UP

Now that's what I call wanting to make some exciting music. On Jethro Tull's second album the band already has a fully matured sound without loosing the banal energy that a successful rock act needs. At this time Jethro Tull was perceived as a heavy blues rock band, but already some progressive and folksy elements can be found in the music. This is by no means a miracle, almost all (heavy) rock bands were searching for ways to expand the music (think of Zeppelin, Purple, etc.).

The main attraction here is the rock energy (which soon became scarce on the following albums), the thick sounding bluesy parts, the great sounding and well played heavy rock drums by Clive Bunker, the melodic song-writing and the nice heavy rock grooves. The album as thick bass rock sound and the guitars sound great. The flute-playing of Anderson sounds less developed, but it really fits the blues rock style. The vocals of Anderson also sound less folksy and seem to have been influenced by soul and blues singers. Almost all track are attractive with either great melodic parts, great rock parts or both. The album also has some diversity, but this face of the album is best exposed on the second side. The album has only one real letdown, the song called 'We used to know', which is a sum of mistakes a complete band can make during a chord-progression that requires modulations in the melody. It's strange to see the band releasing a track like this, later on the band would be very intelligent when it comes to changing keys. Luckily it's follow-up 'Reasons for waiting' regains my full interest from the moment the song starts.

Conclusion. This is one of the most attractive Jethro Tull albums. Whilst it's less progressive, is does have groove, blues, melody, soul and a great thick sound. Great achievement, especially for '69. Four stars.

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