STAND UP

"Stand Up" is probably my favourite Jethro Tull album ever. Not really a prog album, but sure it is an album full of different musical styles. The "bluesy" songs are still present, but compared to the previous album "This Was", here we also find clear references to folk, exotic music, classical and jazz. Compared to the early lineup the big news is the presence of new guitarist Martin Barre in place of Mick Abrahams, whose incompatibility with Anderson had reached a point of no return. Abrahams, in fact, wanted only to play a blues- derived rock, on the contrary Barre satisfying Anderson desire to experiment with new sounds, in particular, much closer to folk and classical.

Howewer, the heavy blues rock numbers are still present, and are of incredible quality. A New Day Yesterday, Nothing Is Easy and For A Thousand Mothers are timeless classics, that Tull continue to perform in concert today. The reinterpretation of Bouree by J.S. Bach is clearly the most popular song of the album, and also the one that aroused most turmoil at the time. After the famous flute theme the song continues with jazz-oriented solos and rhythms.

References to folk are everywhere, from the funny Fat Man and the magnificent Looking To The Sun, to the usual dedication to his friend Jeffrey Hammond - Hammond, Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square, and concludes with an episode more contemplative and relaxing, Reasons For Waiting, in which (unfortunately) appears for the first time a (useless) string section in an attempt to give more redundancy to the sound of the band.

The more conventional tracks? We Used To Know is very beautiful (if you've never heard it think of the chord progression of "Hotel California" by the Eagles: the harmonies of We Used To Know are more or less the same), although after a lot of listening can be a bit boring for pure proggers. Back To The Family, which alternates melodic moments to other, more aggressive, does not lower the overall quality of the album.

While not belonging to the period of the progressive band, whose beginning is usually identified with the recording of "Aqualung", this album shows how the band tries to get out of rigid patterns of blues to reach a more diverse and complex music.

Recommended to all lovers of classic rock. Rating: 9 / 10

5 stars.

Best Song: Looking To The Sun

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