EMERSON LAKE & PALMER

I have been looking forward to making this review as it has been a very long time since I listened to this album the last time and it´s nice to come back with fresh eyes to see if it´s really as good as I rememeber it. This is ELP´s debut album. ELP consists of Keith Emerson ( The Nice) on keyboards, Greg Lake ( King Crimson) on vocals, bass, electric & acoustic guitar and Carl Palmer ( Atomic Rooster) on drums. A kind of supergroup. Both Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer are without a doubt virtuosos on their respective instruments while I have always had a hard time really appreciating Greg Lake´s efforts. He´s a good musician no doubt, but I never felt he was as brilliant as the others. Quite franky I never liked his voice much. It´s hard to explain but it never touched me but it didn´t annoy me either. It´s just there.

The music is rock inspired heavily by classical music. There are only keyboards, bass, drums and vocals in the music but Keith Emerson dominates the soundscape with his keyboards, so you don´t miss any other instrument. This is truly a power trio. The music is mostly instrumental but there are vocal parts which is of course great for the diversity. There are some really good songs on this debut album and I would mention The Barbarian, Take a Pebble, Knife-Edge and Tank as the highlights of the album while I find The Three Fates to be too much noodling and Lucky Man too commercial.

What I enjoy most about this album is the musicianship. Let me just state that it is outstanding and there are several breathtaking moments throughout the album.

The sound quality is excellent. One of the best productions from that time.

There are many positive things to say about this album and I have mentioned a few, but somehow ELP never really excited me much. Their musicianship has always been the most exciting thing about them while I always found most of their songs to be emotionless compared to other great bands from that time like Genesis, Gentle Giant and Yes. It´s about the same feeling I have always had with King Crimson even though I like them a bit more than ELP. I know this sounds very negative but this is a good album and I do like it more than it sounds like when you read the above lines. I would have rated the album 4 stars but after some second thoughts I have decided that I will rate it 3 big stars.