STAND UP

I believe 'Stand Up' is the first Tull album to feature the raw talent of Martin Barre on guitar. Judging by the end result Barre was a more than competent replacement for the departed Mick Abrahams who left to pursue the blues.

'Stand Up' (given this title as the original pressings of the album came with a gatefold which showed the band members stand up on opening the album! Cute.) and its general contents stands (no pun intended) alone in the Tull discography, in that it features an impressive selection of songs that differ from one another and does not sound boring at all.

Martin Barre's guitar has a tone which is purely divine. Anderson's vocals are at their most sardonic best and the bass playing is also outstanding. I believe 'Stand Up' is the last JT album to feature a line-up not including keyboards, given that I am not familiar with the band's subsequent work up to Aqualung, and the combination of flute, guitar, drums, bass and an array of folk instruments render it an outstanding example of progressive rock, before the latter became pompous and grandiose.

The list of outstanding songs is hard to make as all the songs are pure brilliance, but 'Nothing is Easy', 'Fat Man', 'For A Thousand Mothers', 'Back to the Family', 'A New Day Yesterday' and even the instrumental 'Bouree' deserve the album a much higher status in the Progarchives 'chart' than it currently holds.