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Emerson Lake & Palmer - Tarkus CD (album) cover

TARKUS

Emerson Lake & Palmer

 

Symphonic Prog

4.06 | 2071 ratings

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fuxi
Prog Reviewer
3 stars Talking about 'a giant leap for mankind'. (Or at least for three of us!) TARKUS' A-side was almost as stunning an advance on ELP's debut album as YES ALBUM was on TIME AND A WORD. Keith Emerson's composing and keyboard playing (particularly his Hammond organ soloing) suddenly reached exciting new levels. You can tell how happy he was that he'd finally found a drummer and a bassist with whom he could develop his most audacious ideas. Many, many moments still leave me speechless, and even one of ELP's actual SONGS still sounds majestic ('Battlefield', in case you'd like to know) - in spite of those ghastly Lakean lyrics. Strangely enough there's little use of synths: they would really only come into their own in 1972.

I completely agree with most other reviewers that the original album's B-side is a bummer, so if you're just after the 'Tarkus Suite' and want virtually all of BRAIN SALAD SURGERY into the bargain (together with loads of other material), buy THE ATLANTIC YEARS (1992) instead. It's still available secondhand, but I warn you: it has one of the cheapest cover pictures I've ever seen...

Rating: Four stars for the A-side; two for the B-side.

fuxi | 3/5 |

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