LOVE BEACH

One of the more hilarious examples of a once mighty early 70s prog band dismally falling from grace, EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER was quite ready to call it a day instead of convert to the changing musical tides or be crucified but unfortunately the band's record label Atlantic had other plans for them to fulfill the last album of their contract. Was this album a big middle finger to the industry or just a bad joke? Well, most opinions cite this as one of absolute worst examples of an album gone wrong from one of the greats of 70s progressive rock and a huge departure from eh band's intricately designed classical and jazz scores in their 2 volume "Works" albums.

Whatever the case ELP had finally run out of steam and wanted to rest on their laurels but after the Works tour were forced to head to the studio and start what would become their last album of their earliest incarnations. LOVE BEACH was named as such due to the fact that the band were tax exiles and had retreated to the Bahamas where they are seen sporting their classic Bee Gees look on the album cover. This album has attracted a few staunch supporters who would love their favorite band even if they recorded breakfast cereal commercials but the hardcore proggers were having none of this pop rock, AOR and yacht rock soup mixed with a few proggy remnants of the past. In reality and hindsight from someone who wasn't around back then to complain, this album isn't as horrible as the album cover suggests.

LOVE BEACH was divided into two sides, the first consisting of short catchy pop flavored tracks that in many ways sound like a rough draft of what would emerge in the 80s as Asia especially given the Greg Lake connection. The second side featured a return to the prog side of things with the side-long track "Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman" which consisted of four distinct parts and sailed past the 20 minute mark. Despite this attempt to please the fans, this album was seen as a bloody outrage and still receives probably more hate than any other prog gone wrong album in the history of the entire genre. However if one simmers down and actually evaluates the album on its own terms, it's not that bad! Not great either but certainly better than many other albums that were popular even by prog bands.

The first five tracks are all vocal oriented and feature prog pop constructs with the silliest being the title track which unfortunately taints the flow of things if you consider this an album experience but if you can simply fast forward and delete the impressions of the stinkers then this album is definitely worthy for the feisty classically infused "Canario" which is an excerpt from Joaquín Rodrigo's concerto "Fantasía para un Gentilhombre" which finds Keith Emerson in a triumphant return to keyboard wizardry with the other band members cranking out the instrumental prowess ELP fans were accustomed to completely sans vocals.

The 20-minute closer "Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman" delivers the prog goods as a concept piece that recounts the story of a romance between a soldier and his wife to be during World War II although the band had lost control of content at this point and the lyrics were crafted by the additional outside help of Peter Sinfield who not only was one of the key lyricists of King Crimson's lauded debut "In The Court Of The Crimson King" but was even more successful in the world of pop music having worked with Cher, Cliff Richard, Leo Sayer and many others. While this final opus hits all the prog notes especially with beautiful piano riffs with an attempted return to prog, this overweening pompousness turns out to be the weakest side of the album! It sounds like a drunken Elton John trying to venture into classical music in a smokey bar struggling to hit the right notes but saved somewhat by the cool fourth movement.

Oh well. Every great band has an expiration date and although ELP was well aware of that they gave it their best shot to fulfill their obligatory contract and in the process manufactured one of prog's greatest buffoonery sessions. Yeah, this was an admitted embarrassment as expressed by all the band members but personally i don't think it's a complete waste of time either. While the 20-minute B-side is somewhat of a disappointment as is the ridiculous title track, the rest of the tracks are not that bad and as already mentioned crafted the perfect practice sessions for the progressive pop 80s bands that followed and perfected some of the simplified prog that is on display here. As it stands this will probably remain one of the most hated albums in music history and i have avoided this for years but alas i have finally tuned in to see what all the scorn was about and all i have to say - wow!

2.5 rounded down