JETHRO TULL

Benefit (50th Anniversary Enhanced Edition) UMC

THE SEEDS OF TULL’S SOUND AND IDENTITY ARE SOWN HERE.

A new five-disc set boasting lots of fringe benefits.

It might seem odd to describe an album as being underrated when it charted in the Top 10 in six countries, including No.3 in the UK, and subsequently went on to secure Gold disc status and a No.11 placing in the US charts. Yet positioned as it is between the rising brilliance of Stand Up and the glaring global success of Aqualung, there is a sense that Tull’s third album Benefit has felt somewhat overshadowed by the more celebrated ones that bookend it.

Originally released in April 1970, just nine months after its predecessors, Benefit has already been given the Steven Wilson remix treatment in 2013, when it came in the smaller three-disc Digipak that set it at odds with other Tull reissues in the series that stood proud and tall in a larger, hardback book format. Now presented in line with the others, that annoying gap on the shelf that stood out like a missing tooth is now finally filled.

This, however, is not a cynical cash grab nor merely a cosmetic exercise aimed at quelling the grumbling dissent of hardcore collectors suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (guilty as charged, m’lud), but rather a comprehensive upgrade that’s more than worthwhile.

In addition to all of the 2013 contents, including Wilson’s stereo and surround mixes and a tranche of extras, there’s a previously unreleased Wilson mix of Tull in concert at Tanglewood in 1970 and another previously unreleased remastered mono show from later in the same US tour.

The band are on strong and agile form on both occasions demonstrating why and how Tull rapidly became such a hot Stateside ticket, although listeners catch a glimpse of how tired they must have been feeling. “They stuck in another date tomorrow,” Anderson gleefully tells the Chicago crowd through gritted teeth on what was meant to have been the last night of the tour.

On stage, a charismatic, ebullient frontman with firepower around him to match, in the studio on Benefit itself, Anderson the songwriter is caught in a more reflective, introspective mood. Picking apart the realpolitik of family and societal relationships is something Anderson excels at then and now. Though he’s dismissive of many of these songs, as is his prerogative, Benefit stands as a thoughtful and articulate statement that’s both formidable and formative. With the arrival of John Evans’ keyboards and Anderson seriously extending his range as a composer here and across a clutch of ace non-album tracks such as Sweetness, Teacher, and

The Witches’ Promise, the seeds of Tull’s future sound and identity are sown here.