The early works of British rockers Jethro Tull can be seen as a
\nseries of progressions. They went from Fleetwood Mac-like blues on
\nThis Was<\/i> to a more jazz-oriented groove with
\nStand Up<\/i>. But their third album,
\nBenefit<\/i>, marked a turn towards a more experimental sound —
\none which is pretty difficult to categorize.<\/p>\n
More of a rock-oriented disc than the two previous efforts,
\nBenefit<\/i> shows Ian Anderson and crew striving to take a few
\nmore chances with the music this time around. For the most part,
\nthese experiments worked, but it’s a little off-putting the first
\ncouple of listens. (I’m working off of the re-mastered version,
\nwhich includes four bonus tracks, and makes a minor shuffle of the
\ntrack listing I grew up knowing on vinyl.)<\/p>\n
The opening number “With You There To Help Me” is exhibit “A” of
\nwhat is to come from Jethro Tull, both now and in their future.
\nWith a backbeat that suggests both jazz and a touch of
\nadult-contemporary, Anderson almost creates a chant-like atmosphere
\nwith the initial vocals before allowing himself and the band to
\nrelease some energy in the chorus. It’s an interesting mix, but one
\nthat surprisingly holds up well.<\/p>\n
The overall sound on
\nBenefit<\/i> would have to be labeled “unstructured,” just
\nbecause of the jumping from style to style. From the rock-oriented
\n“Teacher” (still an incredible song) to an almost introspective
\nstyle on “For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me,” from the friendly
\nlecture styles of “Inside” and “Son” to a defiant stance on
\n“Nothing To Say,” the band is literally all over the board with
\nthis one.<\/p>\n
This, in the end, turns out to be the biggest hurdle the
\nlistener has to jump. It becomes mentally exhausting to try and
\nkeep up with each stylistic change that Jethro Tull tries to make
\nwith each song, and while the works in and of themselves are solid,
\nafter a while the listener almost feels overwhelmed by the whole
\nprocess.<\/p>\n
The four “bonus” tracks are — at least to me — no surprise,
\nhaving heard them before on
\nLiving In The Past<\/i>. They do feel like natural additions to
\nthe disc (even though I list “Teacher” as an original track on my
\nvinyl copy of
\nBenefit<\/i>, while “Alive And Well And Living In” wasn’t on the
\nrecord originally), and blend right in with the musical
\nscenery.<\/p>\n
\nBenefit<\/i> sometimes feels like you’re running a marathon to
\nget through the disc, but in the end it turns out to be a
\nworthwhile excursion. Yet another of the “forgotten” discs in
\nJethro Tull’s career, this is one which calls for people to dig
\ninto their stacks of vinyl, dust it off and give it a few more
\nspins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5643],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38012","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jethro-tull","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38012"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}