STAND UP

A great step forward was made between the first two Tull albums. From the blues- oriented that could be heard on the first album, thanks to guitarist Mick Abrahams, it went to an album full of styles. Of course, the blues is not completely disappeared, especially on songs such as A new day yesterday, the album opener. Some sweeter songs are excellent, especially Reasons for waiting, with the orchestration from David Palmer. Ian Anderson starts to become his own, with a fresh and youthful side to the songs. Of course, he still does not have the cohesion of future albums, but this is what makes this album beautiful and really joyful. Martin Barre has not found his style yet and is really the weakest musician, as the rythm section is excellent and Anderson is up to himself as usual. But to Barre's defense, one of his greatest performance is on this album: Nothing is easy. One of the problem of this album is that there are mostly no songs thats stand out of the rest, except maybe We used to know, probably the strongest one. On the 2001 version, four excellent songs are included as bonus track and, with those four tracks, this is an excellent album. Recommended, not necessarily as a first Tull experience, but definitely a second or third one. 4/5