BENEFIT

"Benefit" had been the last album by JT with Glenn Cornick on board and the first one with John Evans adding a new dimension to the band's sound with his piano and organ play. It might stand a bit in the shadow of its brilliant follow-up "Aqualung" and the very good previous one "Stand Up" but I wouldn't consider it that much inferior to those ones. This album has an overall darker and more hard-edged sound compared to its follow-up fitting quite well to my taste preferences and of course there aren't such staple hits here like "Aqualung" or "Locomotive Breath". The next one certainly would feature more elaborate lyrical work by Anderson and more of nice acoustic ballads but here we have just strong more powerful tracks instead. They started here as well experimenting with some production techniques like the backwards recorded flute on "With You There To Help Me" which would become a regular joke on stage by Anderson as he turned his back to the audience to play the opening notes. Two facts might be worth mentioning that is first the lyrics "flying so high" in "To Cry You a Song" which seamed to confirm the rumor that Anderson was a junkie what never been the case of course. The second one is the line "blues were my favourite colour until I looked 'round and found another song that I felt like singing" in "Play In Time" which had been a direct message by him to his critics supporting their earlier blues-orientated approach. "Teacher" became very popular in the US though the band considered it rather a throwaway song. Therefore it might have been put only as bonus in its original version featuring less flute on the CD reissue. We get the excellent track "Alive And Well And Living In" dominated by Evans' piano play instead. Other highlights are "Nothing To Say", "Inside", "For Michael Collins", "To Cry You A Song", "Play In Time" and the more acoustic one "Sossity, You're A Woman" but as said already there's not any flaw on here. Recommended as an essential Prog addition!!