EMERSON, LAKE & POWELL: EMERSON, LAKE & POWELL

This is one truly underrated gem I never, ever get tired of. And nearly twenty years later, it still surpasses most of the dreck people deem `progressive.' The album is powerful and intense. `The Score' is a scorcher of an anthem,hearlding their return in fine fashion. `Learnng to Fly' is a catchy pop/rcok song withan interesting middle keyboard solo. `The Miracle is as epic as it gets, with great lyrical imagery and possibly Greg Lake`s last great vocal performance. `Touch and Go was one of those songs built for radio,but yet it reasonates larger than life. Love Blind would possibly seem to people a throwaway tune. Once aqain,it`s pop/rock,but nothing wrong with pop as long as it`s well executed. Step Aside is anice,breezy soft jazz interlude . Lay Down Your Guns is a nice hearfelt ode to to peace in the cold war era. A powerballad of sorts. And then the finale, `Mars,bringer of war. Emerson`s arrangement adds new life to this classical masterpiece. This is `heavy meta'l with keyboards instead of guitar. Keith Emerson and Greg Lake received a lot of flak at the time by uniting with drummer Cozy Powell to hold down the `P' initail. Cynics can be forgiven for thinking Emerson and lake were merely cashing in. But listen to this album; The musc is quite strong. Intesne and agressive which were the hallmarks of EKP music.. It was defintiely better than most albums that came out in the 1980`s and this album blows to shame ElP`s output in the late 70`s, whcih was quite weak and embarassing. Keith Emerson is on the mark with his keyboard work. Here,he is tasteful,never falling into the land of indulgence. And the sounds he was employing at the time were five steps up form the mouldy Hammond organ sounds. The textures are thick and larger than life. Greg Lake is excellent on bass as always. But his singing holds sway here. This is the last album where his voice was still dynamic and powerful. For my money,he was the best singer of the classic rock prog era. It truly is a shame he wrecked his voice through years of smoking as it always had a nice reasonant tone to it. That is the problem inherent with most prog releases nowadays; A lack of a distinguished singer. Either the singers are just plain generic, mediocre, or terrible Cozy Powell may not be Carl Palmer,but his heavy handed style of drumming serves the larger than life music well . His style adds a heaviness to the ELP intensity that never before existed. It`s hard to believe it`s well over 19 years since this album came out. But it`s truly a criminally underrated work. The album still sounds fresh and exciting after all this time. ELPowell made an album that was aggressive and intense without sloppy angst.