Bad albums made to fulfill contractual obligation - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Hosydi wrote:

richardh wrote:

Love Beach is pretty bad following only 4 years on from Brain Salad Surgery. Terrible keyboard sounds and half baked half finished compositions. For You is a decent Lake/Sinfield song and that's pretty much as good as it gets. In The Hot Seat was a disaster with Emerson and Palmer both recovering from operations to their hands for carpal tunnel syndrome. Victory Music went under shortly after as the album bombed. ELP got back up and touring a few years later but never played a single track off that album at any point. That is telling as it gets. In fact as a combo they never played any track off Love Beach either although Carl Palmer did resurrect Canario for his own band.

While Love Beach has received excessive criticism over the years, it deserves reevaluation based on its musical composition, lyrical content, historical context, and evolution of the ELP sound. Fans should approach it open-mindedly, rather than dismissing the album only based on less engaging forum discussions lacking substantive arguments. They will certainly appreciate its unique contributions to ELP's body of work.

I'm sorry but it's a pile of pooh compared to their best albums. This is ELP, not some second rate nothing band. They were considered one of the best early seventies bands back in the day with possibly only Led Zep and Deep Purple being obviously bigger at least until 1972 or thereabouts. They revolutionised progressive/classical rock music and paved the way for Yes and pretty much all the Italian prog scene. It's a long way down from there. They did not want to make it and that's a fact. Atlantic records should have known better than to allow their legacy become so damaged. I hate it personally. It deserves no re-evaluation whatsoever but I am aware that Andy Edwards (and maybe others) have said it's not as bad as its reputation. Scott G Davis (the artist known as 'Myth Of Logic' and a massive ELP fan) has said it would not be a bad album if it was released by any other band. True perhaps but the main point is that it is ELP and not some other band. That's the only context it needs. IMO