EMERSON LAKE & PALMER

Emerson Lake & Palmer burst onto the music scene back in 1971 with this incredible album. Keith Emerson had used classical pieces as the basis for his rock songs while in The Nice, but never with a band with this amount of talent. Carl Palmer's drumming and Greg Lake's bass, guitar and singing voice far surpassed their counterparts in Emerson's old band.

Right from the start of The Barbarian, with a roar from Lake's guitar, and Emerson's might Hammond organ, the listener knew he was in for a new experience. Bartok had never sounded so cool. Every song here, even the soft ballads, are classics of prog.

Take A Pebble may be ELP's most beautiful song, with Emerson's piano deftly describing the ripples created in the ocean from a tossed pebble. Knife Edge gives us a very heavy piece, based on Leos Janacek's Sinfonietta. This song would become a live favorite for the band, with Emerson throwing knives into his tortured Hammond.

The Three Fates is first an organ-heavy piece, that then turns to piano amazingness. Tank is a fusion piece, one of the few Palmer had a hand in writing. And Lucky Man, well, everyone knows that song. It still, to this day, gets plenty of radio airplay.

While this does not have ELP's best songs, it is certainly their most consistent album.