EMERSON LAKE & PALMER

I've been very patient when it comes to reviewing ELP albums. The reason for that is the fact that the first four albums strike a nostalgic chord with me that will probably effect my judgment. But after thinking about it I've decided to give it a go. I just what you all to know that you should take my ELP-reviews with a grain of salt since they're written by a fan.

ELP albums have never, in my opinion, really been group efforts. That was until I discovered Emerson, Lake & Palmer's debut album. Here, I can actually hear Greg Lake's contributions on every track while still getting my regular dosage of Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer. It's clear that the band has a bunch of clever ideas, but those ideas wouldn't all be implemented with the same greatness as on their later releases. In other words, this album gives us a great group effort but lacks the maturity.

Only the album opener The Barbarian is great enough to be comparable with the band's later work. Take A Pebble definitely comes close to greatness but falls due to the very loose middle section of the track. My recommendation is to start with Tarkus, Pictures At An Exhibition and Trilogy and later work your way to this release and maybe even Brain Salad Surgery. Although, if you ask me, you can probably skip everything that came after Trilogy all together since it's all just an ego trip between the band members.

The band's debut album is a good example of what these three individuals might have achieved if only they continued to collaborate as a band. Instead they only fell further apart from each other with each consecutive release. This, in no way, implies that they still couldn't write great music, even though it was never again the band effort that can be observed here.

***** star songs: The Barbarian (4:33)

**** star songs: Take A Pebble (12:34) Knife-Edge (5:08 The Three Fates (7:45) Tank (6:52) Lucky Man (4:36)