Customer Reviews
The guitar album - By: G. G. Saunders, 28 Oct 2008 
Tull`s Third album & still my favourite blimey can you count just how many this band have knocked out over the years , it must be at least twenty five or so & even now I find that the eight albums I have this is their best to my ears.. if you are thinking but he hasnt got them all so how does he know? . I have heard them all but only buy the few I really like. Benefit is Tull`s guitar rock album & its a scorcher great writing, musicianship, toungein cheek lyrics a great package nicely wrapped up.
Really a gem - By: J. R. Osborne, 17 Oct 2008 This album is 50% bliss. Half of the tracks are just good, but the other half are stunning. As was to become the norm with Tull you do need to get to know each track to appreciate it, but they really do repay the effort. Certainly the first three on side 1 are masterpieces. To Cry You A Song is also great. Sossity is beautiful & Play In Time is the answer to Blues.
Buy it now. When you receive it sit down on your own with some headphones on & play it three times. And really listen (really listen). People rave about Aqualung, but Benefit is sublime.
A time for change - By: Mark Kibble, 30 Aug 2008 The blues & jazz influences of the first two albums have all but disappeared, to be replaced with a gutsier rock style with very definite folky leanings. Sadly this was to be Glenn Cornick's final album (he is still my favourite Tull bassist).
Due to Tull's worldwide touring commitments they needed to release something special to keep the home fans happy (they were hardly everin the u.k.) & this album went some way towards achieving that.
Martin Barre's guitar is prominent, replacing Ian's flute as the focal point for the majority of the songs, some heavyish riffing & quality leadwork, all made possible thanks to John Evan filling out the sound with his keyboards.
Favourite tracks? well that depends on the mood, but 'with you there to help me', 'nothing to say' & 'to cry you a song' are always worth a mention, but the rest are all top class.
Soundwise the remastering is ok except for 'inside', or have I got a naf copy?
A fine example of early Tull, if you've not heard it, then what are you waiting for, it's cheap enough.
Review of Benefit - By: Chris Kay, 05 Jun 2007 This, the third Tull album, followed This Was & Stand Up. In its time, Benefit as well-received & it sold well, although Stand Up did perhaps have a little more popular acclaim. Stand Up had been an album of rather more gentle melody but Benefit was a little harder-edged: an album with rather more electric guitar. Although not fundamentally a blues album as had been This Was, one can still hear that the band is really not that far removed from the blues, especially on the track 'to cry you song,' which is Tull at their best, & notin the least dated.
I always remember a contemporary 'top 100 of all time' list which contained a review of Stand Up & Benefitin which these albums were described as containing 'tight, riffy songs, full of melody & ripe with wit.' This is still the best description of Tull that I have ever heard, & one which I still retainin my memory. Without doubt, this was the fresh, golden age of the band. Benefit, for me, is still their pinnacle, & along with Stand Up, Livingin th Past, Aqualung, Songs from the Wood & Heavy Horses, contains their best work. I regret tht I am not keen on the mediocre albums from the mid seventies ('Brick' Warchild, Minstrel & Passion Play), nor on the very heavy & muddy style found on Stormwatch & Broadsword. I do quite like the lighter & more clean melody of Under Wraps, but the rest of the eighties stuff leaves me cold. If you are starting to listen to Tull, go for Benefit, Stand Up & Livingin the Past. These I have never tired of, not even after 35 years.
Their finest moment - for our benefit - By: M. R. N. Shackelford, 19 Feb 2007 After the bluesy first two albums (which are fun but no better than the competition) comes this extraordinarily beautiful jazz/blues/rock music - Benefit.
This is the album which defined the Jethro Tull sound - flutes, guitars, piano & the wonderful bass & drums... Quite unique, especially with Mr. Anderson's tremendous voice.
Afterwards came Aqualung (almost as good - but a bit "preachy"), & then the wild worlds of "Thick as a Brick" & "Passion Play" - all truly wonderful, but not as ground breaking as this "Benefit".
All the tracks fit together so well (it reminds me of the perfection of the Who's "Who's Next") - it is a concept albumin terms of sound, feel, style rather than any specific concept.
No outstanding track - they are all perfect. Oh, for those halcyon days of the early 70's - live them again here...
