TARKUS

"Tarkus" is one of those records that always receive all kinds of opinions: from the bad ones that criticize the album for the lack of effort on the B-side to the good ones that say the album is an absolute indispensable record, well, I'm right between those two opinions. The title track is the longest and occupies the first side of the LP with its almost 21 minutes: the song makes the most interesting changes through its eight independent sub-titles, and actually, it is considered as one of the most amazing songs that Emerson, Lake & Palmer made in their entire discography. Personally, I think it is one of the most epic songs in Progressive Rock and an obligated stop in the journey of discovering the different faces of this genre.

"Jeremy Bender" is a song that has never been well received by fans and critics, I've read a lot of reviews and comments from around the world that criticize its style of Old West Saloon music (that would appear again on other songs of the band such as "Benny the Bouncer" and "The sheriff"), not my very personal track of the album. "Bitches Crystal" is a fast rock song with not a lot of complex rhythm changes, sounds as a filler song. "The only way (Hymn)" is a piano/organ piece, kind of slow and relaxing.

"Infinite space" continues showing the habilities of Keith Emerson on piano, this instrumental piece opens the door to a very exquisite song called "A time and a place" which has a very science-fictional kind of sound, almost as if it was Space Rock on some moments. The closing track "Are you ready Eddy?" is a very short Hard Rock song that Greg Lake wrote to Eddy Offord, engineer of the album who had also worked with Yes, and even when I really like the song I recognize is not one of their best tracks.

Nice album but not the greatest of this band, on the other hand, the song "Tarkus" alone is one of their greatest songs ever, so don't hesitate in listening to it if you haven't done it yet.

SONG RATING: Tarkus, 5 Jeremy Bender, 4 Bitches crystal, 4 The only way (Hymn), 4 Infinite Space (Conclusion), 5 A time and a place, 5 Are you ready Eddy? 4

AVERAGE: 4.42

PERCENTAGE: 88.4

ALBUM RATING: 4 stars

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