TARKUS

Tarkus, Emerson Lake & Palmer's second album is one spectacular, if flawed, piece of work. The title track remains, even almost forty years later, as one of the most fantastic, and most cohesive, prog rock epics ever recorded. Many long epics sound like many songs joined together to make them into one long song. But this one, with it's complex interwoven themes that pop up throughout the work, flows perfectly from one section to the other, often referencing back to previous ideas, or previewing sections to come. This is just a work of genius.

The second half (or slightly less than half) of the album is not bad either. While the songs are not as spectacular as Tarkus, they display the inventiveness and versatility of this remarkable band, whether in the honky tonk of Jeremy Bender, the more straight forward rock of Bitches Crystal, or the solemnity of The Only Way. And how can you not love the bravery it took to write a song espousing atheism, as the latter title did?

The only blemish I find on this album is the closer, the annoying Are You Ready Eddy?, an homage to the fabled engineer, Eddy Offord.

4.5 stars, rounded up.