PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

I remember paying a premium for Pictures when it was originally released, as it was initially available as an import only in the U.S. I loved Pictures at the time, but I was also a huge ELP fan back in the day. At some point over the years, the LP and I became separated, so I recently bought the remastered CD in order to complete this review. Funny, I remember all 40-odd minutes of Pictures almost note-for-note, 30+ years later, but this one has not aged well.

There are some fine moments here -- Blues Variations is about the best -- but on the whole this is disappointing. Emerson has a tendency to use his synthesizer to generate sounds, rather than music. When the band is sticking to what it does best -- the aforementioned Blues Variations, The Sage (with its restrained vocals and acoustic guitar), The Great Gates of Kiev (an early prog power-ballad if there ever was one) -- this is pretty good. Tthe rest is all too often noise and bombast, and begs to be rated accordingly, which is a nice way of saying that I can't imagine that anyone but ELP fans would have any interest in Pictures.

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