IN THE HOT SEAT

What a great complement to Works I and II !

I guess that Emerson, Lake & Plamer couldn't have done better. Fully in-line with these previous two efforts.

Second great deception : so far, no live version for this "Works III" has been announced. What a pity ! We'll have to make it with the studio album only. How "great" would those songs have sounded like on stage ? We'll never know I'm afraid. We could have organized a contest on PA to determine the best versions of these "songs" : studio or live ones. Big fun, I tell you...

But no such contest, unfortunately. It is very difficult to say which track is the best one. I might be biased. I believe it would be wiser to start a poll with this question. But who's going to participate in such a useless poll ?

OK, I'll do it. One of the very few bearable track might well be "Man In The Long Black Coat". Sounds at times as "Dire Straits" though. To know which ones are the poorer is far much easier. Get all the other ones. Still, a special mention for "Thin Line" absolutely awful.

The most AOR-ish one ? "Hand Of Truth" or "Change" probably. The most syrupous ones ? "Daddy" and "Give Me A Reason To Stay" (well-named while you are listening to this "jewel"). The silliest rocking ones ? "Gone Too Soon" on par with "Street War". What a great duo to close the album !

Well, almost close it since ELP had the bright idea to record a bonus track. A studio version of "Pictures..." originally released as a live effort in 1972. I thought that studio versions came first, but who knows. Anyway, they should not really have bothered. This edulcorate version won't be able to compete with the old one. By no means. Lake's vocals are terrible. Poor Greg. Poor Mussorgsky.

Difficult time of rating now comes. I would say that this album is between the quality of Works I and Works II. Since I have rated both of them with one star ...

Share this EMERSON LAKE & PALMER review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to ZowieZiggy
• Report this review (#132172)
• Buy EMERSON LAKE & PALMER music online with PA partners
• Show all EMERSON LAKE & PALMER MP3/Stream
• Go to EMERSON LAKE & PALMER page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to In The Hot Seat page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for EMERSON LAKE & PALMER related discussions