Jethro Tull
Stand Up (The Elevated Edition)

Let's really understand each other: in its standard version, this album is spectacular, and the re-release I'm about to review makes it truly stellar. I'm talking about Stand Up (The Elevated Edition), a deluxe repackage of one of the most beautiful Tull albums released in 2016 (the standard, digitally remastered version with four Bonus tracks is from 2001). This deluxe repackage includes 2 CDs and 2 DVDs, so it's not an overly rich box set, but it is a re-release that, as far as I'm concerned, deserves five stars (and maybe even more). But let's take it one step at a time.

In CD 1, we can listen to the album and the Associated recordings, among which Living In The Past and Bourée (Morgan version) stand out, which turns out to be slightly different from the version included in the album. We then find Driving Song (a mastodonic super classic from their debut album, namely This Was). We also have the Original 1969 stereo mixes of the following songs: Living In The Past and Driving Song. The final tracks of CD 1 are: A New Day Yesterday, Fat Man, Nothing Is Easy and Bourée, recorded (in mono audio quality) at the live sessions of the BBC Radio 1 program 'Top Gear'. CD 2, on the other hand, documents the concert that Tull performed at the Stockholm Konserthuset on January 9, 1969. In this case, the song that stands out is To Be Sad Is A Mad Way To Be, a blues track invented on the spot by Ian Anderson, the mythic leader of the band: this track has one set of lyrics in the context of the first show and a completely different one in the second. We also find the Original 1969 mono single mixes of the following songs: Living In The Past and Driving Song. CD 2 concludes with two radio spots for the promotion of the album.

The DVD, finally, includes: the entire album, Living In The Past, Driving Song, and Bourée (Morgan version) in 5.1 DTS, AC3 Dolby Digital surround sound, and 96/24 LPCM stereo audio formats; a filmed contribution recorded on 09/01/1969 at the Stockholm Konserthuset documenting the live version of the songs: To Be Sad Is A Mad Way To Be and Back To The Family; a flat transfer of the Original 1969 master tapes and a flat transfer of the Original 1969 mono and stereo mixes of Living In The Past and Driving Song.