Before recording sessions for the album began, the band's original guitarist Mick Abrahams departed from the band as a result of musical differences with frontman and primary songwriter Ian Anderson; Abrahams wanted to stay with the blues rock sound of their 1968 debut, This Was, while Anderson wished to add other musical influences such as folk rock.

[2] As a result of Abrahams' departure, Anderson was the sole songwriter on all of the album's tracks, with the exception of the jazz fusion cover of J.S.

Anderson's songwriting sees the album shift musically away from the blues rock of This Was, instead favoring more layered and poignant songs drawing influences from folk artists such as Roy Harper, Pentangle and Bert Jansch.

During the recording of This Was, frontman Ian Anderson began writing new material which differed from the straight blues/jazz fusion style which the band were known for at the time.

Anderson wrote the album's songs on an acoustic guitar in his bedsit in Kentish Town, London, and cited Roy Harper, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Parker, Bert Jansch, Pentangle, Blind Faith and Jimi Hendrix as inspirations.

[6] The job eventually went to Martin Barre, who immediately joined rehearsals for Stand Up before making his live debut with the band on 30 December 1968.

[7] Anderson cited Morgan Studios' modern 8-track recording facilities as "a big help", saying that "8-track was the beginning of that creative freedom without which it would have been much harder to have made the Stand Up album.

Johns tried some innovative recording techniques on the album; for example on "A New Day Yesterday" he achieved a swirling, stereo-shifting guitar effect by swinging an expensive Neumann U67 microphone on its cable in wide circles around the studio.

Under the direction of producer Terry Ellis, the band met a woodcarver named James Grashow who followed them for a week in order to properly represent them in wood.

The instrumental "Bourée" (one of Jethro Tull's popular concert pieces) is a jazzy re-working of "Bourrée in E minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach.

[12] Anderson has described the album's lyrics as composing of a mixture of made up scenarios, occasionally mixed with biographical anecdotes or experiences from his personal life.

Songs like "Back to the Family" and "For a Thousand Mothers" were influenced by Anderson's rocky relationship with his parents at the time, while "We Used to Know" describes the band's difficult life of financial hardship before finding success.

[17] American critic Robert Christgau reiterated his dislike of the band, but judged the album "adequate" in his Village Voice review.

[18] A retrospective AllMusic review was positive, saying that the band had "solidified their sound" with the album, bringing an "English folk music" influence to several of the songs, atop an overall blues rock foundation.

"[20] The Record Collector review highlights how "the album captured the band on a vertiginous upswing, jubilant with confidence following the drafting in of guitarist Martin Barre" and contained "a fresh batch of diverse but uniformly strong compositions".

[24] Black Francis of Pixies also spoke glowingly of the album, commenting, "Stand Up is the [Jethro Tull] record that moves me the most.

It also includes a 112-page booklet featuring track-by-track annotations by Ian Anderson, an extensive history of the album, rare and unseen photographs and a reproduction of the original pop-up book artwork designed by James Grashow.

Gatefold "tip on" jacket manufactured by Stoughton Printing, faithfully reproducing the original pop-up of the band members from the initial release.