BRAIN SALAD SURGERY

Worthy of its high praise, "Brain Salad" features just about everything ELP is famous for: gigantic organ melodies, smooth and beautiful vocals, skillful and dynamic drumming, pretentious bombast, occasionally brilliant but usually interesting epic songwriting and mediocre filler material. "Brain Salad" has it all (plus HR Giger ta boot)!

In all seriousness, "Brain Salad" is a hallmark of the genre, whether you like it or not. It is aggressively creative technologically, and shows the respected prog-giants further experimenting at what the limits of their respective instruments can do. I hate "Jerusalem" just as much as the next guy, but "Toccata"-- and of course the "Karn" suite-- are simply stellar. The requisite Greg Lake ballad is delightfully sinister and catchy, and the even more requisite "rowdy rock-n-roll" song can is actually a fun listen. "Karn" steals the show (it's a dynamo), making for a exciting mixture of sci-fi sing-along and instrumental complexity.

More importantly, this is the only ELP album in which Emerson's huge keyboard's don't completely squash the sound and leave the listener wishing for a guitar lead.

Songwriting: 4 Instrumental Performances: 5 Lyrics/Vocals: 4 Style/Emotion/Replay: 4