THE BEST OF EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER

Oh, I remember when this LP came out in 1980. It was odd. ELP was the least unfashionable band then. They were the treated as scapegoats for the Press at the time. For them they represented better than any other band "everything that was wrong in rock music at the mid 70´s" as critics always love to say before the "explosion" of their beloved punk rock bands. Well, ELP did made some excesses alright, but for the early 70´s they were truly great and innovative. And very succesful (critics hate succesful bands, did you notice?). Unfortunatly ELP did comit the awful Love Beach album by the end of decade, which did not help things in any way.

So why this compilation? The band was finished, the style dead and buried (at least for the main musical press) and progressive was a swear word. But the recording company still thought they could squeeze a few more bucks from the dead corpse, releasing this LP containing some of their most accessible stuff. Granted: for the time the selection was not that bad, but hardly representative. If they wanted their lighter tunes, where are their best selling singles From The Beginning and C´est La Vie? Several tracks here are great and had their importance for the band´s career, but as one might have guessed, they are also quite edited. There is barely 39 minutes of music in all.

So if you ever find this turd, avoid at all costs. If you want a good compilation, get 1994´s CD namesake, which has a far more thoughtful selection of tracks and gives a good overview of their classic period plus some other less popular, but equally good, material.

I´m giving it two stars for the quality of the band and songs themselves, but only for this reason. Not recommended to anyone.