Benefit
In the late 70s, a fellow student who was a good friend of mine, Ian Blyde, used to say that Jethro Tull were a band that he recognised were talented but didn’t do anything for him. I know what he meant, I feel exactly the same about, for example, Rush. Jethro Tull have long been a band I’ve taken in small doses, often individual songs rather than whole albums. Even their landmark Aqualung is one I have a slightly idiosyncratic view of–I think the acoustic guitar-based songs are the best things on it. These days, Aqualung is also the only Jethro Tull album I own.
Benefit, is seems, divides opinion amongst both fans and members of the band. I come down on the side that isn’t especially impressed. It sounds like a join-the-dots Tull. The playing is strong and tight, but there’s almost nothing in the songs to capture and hold my attention. Most of them sound pitched a semi-tone or so too low for Ian Anderson’s voice. It isn’t a residual ‘sixties’ sound and the band’s musical palette is quite broad, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. I’ll exempt from this Inside, which does have a late-sixties vibe but is, for my money, the best song on the album.
There was a lot of great, not to say ‘progressive’ music around in 1970, but this isn’t it.
I listened on Spotify, and the album is available on YouTube (with the extended/remaster track listing).
Recent Comments