EMERSON LAKE & PALMER

ELP. Three letters which evokes all the extravaganza and exhuberence you can think of. They have been categorized as pompous, pretentious, bombastic. What is for sure is that those three guys are very gifted. Each of them playing his intrument (s) very well. To decide to not include a guitar player in their line-up in those days was rather bold.

The opener "The Barbarian" is a true ELP song. Every aspect of their personality is represented here. It is a kaleidoscope of what ELP will produce durin the decades to come. One of my all time fave. Powerful, violent and bombastic. This is how I love ELP. This trio is extremely powerful, delivering incredible sounds thanks to each one's virtuosity.

"Take A Pebble" is a showcase for Lake and Emerson. I quite like Lake's very smooth tone of voice; quiet, discreet, almost tranquil. His bass play in the first part of the song is really impressive. The song will evolve into a classic piece during which he will play a very subtle acoustic guitar piece. It is a very slow part, almost silent. Emerson will take up around the middle of the song, as if each has to have the lead on his own.

This will probably affect the cohesion of the band sometimes (cf. Works). Each member playing his part to shine. I do not know if it was a compromise between them or just a fact that arose between them. The last section of the song, is quite jazzy and sounds more as an improvisation. Some nice drumming work as well during this part. IMO, this number lacks in cohesion : no real leading strand.

"Knife Edge" is a difficult number, its dark mood reminds me of KC. It is a powerful track, like the opener. We are far from the subtility of "Take A Pebble". This track clearly announces "Tarkus". It also has all the typical ingredients of a classic ELP track. The trio is sensational : to combine such pieceful (almost religious) music with the heaviest one without transition is a remarkable tour de force. Keith is hitting his keys like a savage. Really good.

The pompous side of the band is clearly illustrated in the intro of "The Three Fates" : sounds like the entry of the gladiators in the arena. Could have been the sountrack of a peplum of the sixties (Wakeman will also sound like that from time to time). These three movements are purely there to push Keith on the front line. This track is a bit annoying. It is again a real band track during the last third of it. Great percussion work again from Carl.

"Tank" is, during the intro sounds more like a combination from the band. It confirms their maestria as a band but inevitably since he was somewhat discreet so far, this number will be the opportunity for Carl to be on the foreground. Great drumming (with a short solo) from one of the greatest rock drummer (all times, all genres).

ELP were short of one song to make a decent lenghty album. So, they were still missing one number. Lake will come with a very old number he wrote while he was twelve (if I remember correctly). It will lead to this very nice little piece of music. The lightest on this album, and even if Lake is of course the frontman here, the band is wonderful in its complementarity. I like that song very much (even after such a long time).

This is a very good debut album for the band. Of course these musicians have already played with big names before so it is not really their debut. What frustrates me on this album, but this is an ELP trademark, is the habit from the E, the L and the P to play each one's part as being more important as the performance of the whole. At least it sounds like this to my ears. Having said this, this album gets all the ELP quintessence. There are no weak numbers, it displays already what the band will produce later on and is, IMO, one of the best they will produce.

Four stars.