BENEFIT

This was the follow up to the album "Stand Up" and it sounds quite different. It's rockier and has more bluesy moments. A lot of proggers seem to love Benefit but I must say that even though I'm a huge JT fan, it's one of my least favourite of thier albums.

There's a new bit of organ and piano here which provide some nice touches to a lot of the songs. You may also notice a few interesting tape-manipulation techniques like backwards flute on the first song "With You There To Help Me" as well as some backward piano and sped up guitar effects on "Play In Time" which sound rather odd and psychedelic.

Highlights for me are probably the more tranquil tracks like "Inside", "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me" and "Sossity You're A Woman".

It is a good album though maybe I'm missing something because it just does't deliver a punch to me as much as the good old previous album! I would rather recommend following albums like Aqualung, Thick As A Brick or most of the other Tull albums from the 70's than this one. 3 stars.