BENEFIT

I'm feeling guilty because of my mean rating: four stars and a half. Well, I love this album. Not as much as Stand up, Aqualung or TAAB, but this was my first experience with Tull, and how do you want me to overlook it? Impossible. I love it. But, unfortunately, it was sandwiched by two masterpieces. It uses to happen; same with Yes' Fragile and KC's Island, among many other excellent albums released in between two dinosaurs, and they become a bit overlooked due to it. Benefit is (don't know if it was at the time, but actually is) a similar case. I'd give it five stars because I personally like it, but from an objetive point of view, in Benefit there are the first dull moments in Tull's discography.

First of all, in comparison to Stand Up (or even This Was), this album sounds less Tullish than before. It means, early Tull used to compose multi-directions albums, like Stand Up: jazzy, bluesy, rocker, folky, etc.... A masterpiece. Maybe Benefit is as versatile as its predeccessor, but clearly more lack of inspiration. Perhaps you just need to listen to the opening track and you'll get my idea: it's about six minutes long, when it could be less than four minutes. A great song, don't get me wrong, but it goes a bit long..... that's all. Exactly the same on 'To Cry You A Song', one of the well-known classics on this album, and it's quite heavy, has a great riff, but it could be much better if it were about four minutes instead of six or more.

Ok, there are no dull tracks, but there are dull passages, repetitive passages of music mostly on the tracks aforementioned. If you ask me for a low note, I'd say 'Play in Time', cause I can't get that agressive flute riff and that distorted guitar moments, but still a good song. 'For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me" pretends to be another memorable acoustic tune, but unfortunately it derives into a harder section... not suitable at all, but again, still a pretty good Tull song. The rocker 'Son' also has little weak moments.

My cup of tea? Well, every track deserves a mention, although my personal favourite is the closing track. It's also acoustic but a bit more medieval-esque and it has a beautiful organ at the intro. The flute along the chorus is also fine. This is THE acoustic song of the album, and for sure one of the acoustic Tull classics of all. Love the lyrics too. I also enjoy 'Nothing to Say' pretty much. I find both electric and acoustic guitar work fairly superb. Special mention to 'Inside' too, it contains one of the best lyrics I've ever heard.

Yep, the first uninspired passages begin to appear on this album; luckily, we'll have again other masterpieces in the next years, starting with Aqualung. But don't stay away from here: this is a nice album and truly essential for J-Tull fans. Enjoy it as I did when I was about twelve and it got me into this terrific band. Four stars and a half.

NOTE: ...Wait... Another half star! Because you gotta try to get it with the bonus tracks. 'Just Trying to Be' is easily one of the most beautiful short songs that I've heard, and both 'Witches Promise' & 'Singing All Day' are classics from the early days. Anyway, all those tracks will appear in the fantastic compilation 'Living in the Past', released one year later.

Try it!