April 20, 1970 - Benefit

About a month since my last release, and nine months since "Stand Up", Jethro Tull released their third album "Benefit" on April 20, 1970. While not a full-time member, this album features lots of contributions from John Evan on keyboards. He played with Ian Anderson early on in his career and he invited him to play piano and organ on the album. Evan influenced the style of play the band would have, so let's have a listen to some new Tull!

The first song on side 1 is "With You There To Help Me", which opens with a short flute solo. The first verse is pretty quiet but has some cool acoustic and electric guitar. Evan's first contribution is piano in the chorus and after the second verse we hear a cool alternating bit between Anderson's flute and Barre's guitar. We hear the chorus once more before some more great alternating almost solos that finish out the song. The next song, "Nothing To Say" is a slow rock song driven by a simple guitar riff. It's definitely a cool song but nothing really jumps out at you. Track 3 is called "Alive And Well And Living In" which is driven by a piano riff by Evan. The guitar and flute join in and throughout the song these three in particular do some really great stuff. Evan even has a nice mini-solo near the end. The next track "Son" starts with some heavy piano and is driven by a nice guitar riff. The rhythm section drops out for a spell and we hear just piano, guitar and singing. Evan's piano is definitely all over this side of the album and I think it's a welcome addition. The side ends with the third song (one off each album) by Jethro Tull mentioning Jeffrey in "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me". It begins with a slow acoustic riff and singing. The piano and drums join in and it changes to a rock riff led by some faster acoustic guitar. They repeat the slow to fast process before ending on another slow note. 

Side 2 kicks off with "To Cry You A Song", which is driven by a catchy guitar riff. Anderson's voice sounds amplified and I think it sounds great. Barre's riff starts to speed up and that leads into a short guitar solo. Another couple verses and we get an extended guitar solo that sounds really great. This song has no flutes in it, but Tull cam still sound great without them. Up next is "A Time For Everything?", which has some guitar and flute being played together. Bunker has a few nice fills and Annderson has some flashes of good flute, but it's really a mild song. Track 8 is titled "Inside" and is led by a cool flute riff. When he's not playing flute, Anderson sings beautifully on this one and features some cool bass by Glenn Cornick. The next song is called "Play In Time", which is led by another awesome flute riff. The guitar echoes the same riff and Evan plays organ in the background. In between the verses there is some psychedelic stuff happening, which is a little odd for Tull. They double down with truly crazy guitar effects, and this sounds very unlike them, but I think it's fantastic! The flute plays overtop and this song is certainly a unique one. Side 2 closes with "Sossity; You're A Woman", which is led by a cool acoustic guitar riff. Flutes and organ join in the chorus and with a slow pace this song ends a little after 2 verses, despite being almost 5 minutes. 

That is the end of Jethro Tull's third album "Benefit". A solid album for sure; I believe side 1 was a little lacklustre and side 2 was better but still lacked the awesomeness that was on several songs on "Stand Up", which I think remains their top effort. I do like this album more than their debut "This Was", but there is certainly a bit of a gap between it and their second album. I'm sure they've got some more of that awesomeness in there though, and I can't wait to hear it come bursting out in hopefully not too long. See you "next month"!