M.U. - THE BEST OF JETHRO TULL

"MU: The Best of Jethro Tull" was released at a time when Jethro Tull and progressive rock in general was at the peak of its popularity. The album encompasses all Jethro Tull's greatest songs from the period leading up to the album's release. It features a version of "Aqualung" with an alternative acoustic section which follows the introduction. This version is better than the original "Aqualung " version in my opinion as it gives greater diction to the words and blends with the mood of the section better. Other than that the album features greatly edited versions of both "Thick As A Brick" and "A Passion Play", these four minute versions do absolutely no justice to the four original 20 minute-a-piece songs. Never the less "MU: The Best of Jethro Tul"l includes most the best stuff from Jethro Tull in a 40 minute long album, including "Bungle in the Jungle" (which I'm happy about.) The only thing missing from "MU:" (from the band's 70's period) is "Cross Eyed-Mary" which is one of the band's more successful songs, although "MU" already has two songs from "Aqualung."

There are no songs from the band's debut album 'This Was' and the addition of 'Beggar's Farm' or something would been good for a best of album. Apart from that " MU: The Best of Jethro Tull offers up all the best Jethro Tull songs from the 70's. Its difficult to rate "MU: The Best of Jethro Tull" because, although it features such great epics and T"hick As A Brick" and "A Passion Play", they only give a small sample of what they actually are. For this reason it's difficult to decide whether to recommend "MU:" to people new to Jethro Tull, the true meaning of these epics can only be encompassed in their full length. I can really only recommend MU: to collectors as it includes the alternative version of "Aqualung", so sadly I'm gonna have to give MU two stars. To all Jethro Tull newbies you're much better off getting the remastered version of 'Aqualung' as it includes some of the band's best stuff and several bonus tracks which, really makes "MU: "obsolete. Collectors/fans only