TO THE POWER OF THREE

In the eighties there was a wave of reunion of seventies progressive rock bands. First of all Robert Fripp showed up with a new King Crimson, then Asia appeared and they managed to release one of the most successful debuts ever. Later on Yes was revamped by the talents of Trevor Rabin and ended up in the charts. In 1985 it was time for a reunion of the famous trio Emerson, Lake and Palmer but at the time, Carl Palmer was playing the drums in Asia. That's why ELP became Emerson, Lake and Powell because Cozy Powell replaced Palmer behind the drum kit. After the disappointing sales of the debut album, Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer rejoined forces but now, Greg Lake wasn't around. Keith Emerson was introduced to the talented singer/bassist Robert Berry who just left GTR. Soon they decided to form a band with Sue Shifrin. Although things didn't work out with Shifrin, one of her compositions ended up on the debut album of 3. "Chains" became one of the FM rockers of the album. This isn't a bad rock song but quite similar to the music of many AOR acts of that era. Half of the album consists of enjoyable tunes like that. The other half of the album sounds more or less progressive. The prog tracks are sounding very bombastic and overblown especially "Talkin' bout which was initially written for GTR. "Desde La Vida" is the highlight of the album. It's a splendid complex epic in which the musicians show their amazing skills. The band recorded another epic like that for a second album. Too bad it was never finished and "Last ride into the sun" ended up on a Robert Berry compilation album. This debut album would have benefited from its inclusion. Like it is now, there's too less prog here. The piano based hymn "On my way home" is the only track that's typical for ELP. Even if it's simplified, it's worth of checking out and a must have for ELP fans. There definitely is some good song writing contributed by Berry on radio friendly tracks like "Lover to lover" , "Runaway" and "You do or you don't" but I don't get excited by hearing it. At the time of release this album wasn't promoted and ended up in the sales bin very soon. I don't think a lot of prog fans will regret it...

Emerson, Berry and Palmer

It is interesting that when Carl Palmer missed out on an ELP album, the other two simply replaced the name Palmer with Powell, creating Emerson Lake and Powell. When Greg Lake however had his sabbatical and Robert Berry was brought in, they didn't become Emerson Berry and Palmer, they simply became "3". This was not a particularly smart move in marketing terms for two reasons.

A) because it was far from obvious that Emerson and Palmer were involved in the project and

B) the use of a number for the band name. Don't look for the band on this site under the letter T, it's not there. Retailers too did not know whether to file it under the number 3, the letter T, or indeed under ELP.

The album poses something of a quandary musically too. For the most part, it doesn't sound like an ELP album, or for that matter a prog rock album. Emerson and Palmer are, perhaps surprisingly, given supporting roles as Berry dominates proceedings.

The music is mostly AOR pop rock, along the lines of Journey or Styx. It appears the trio were perhaps trying to "do an Asia", and break into the commercial market with a hit single or two. That market was and is however saturated, and it was going to take something special to set 3 apart from the many other similar bands. Unfortunately, this is where the plan fell down. The music, especially in terms of the song writing, is at best average and often downright weak. Tracks such as "Lover to lover", "You do or you don't", and "Runaway" are pop rock drivel, which could have been recorded by any of thousands of Hairspray Heaven bands. There's also a rather pointless cover of the Byrds classic, "Eight miles high", which manages to sanitise the song into a basic pop number.

There are a couple of redeeming features however. "Desde la Vida" is a decent piece of prog in three parts. Even here though, the impression is that Emerson is playing well within himself. The closing track "On my way home" is a more satisfactory anthemic piece, with a marching rhythm not unlike "Romeo and Juliet" from "Black moon".

While Berry is clearly an accomplished singer, the general weakness of the material render his performance nondescript. Emerson's occasion forays to the front are welcome and recognisable in terms of sound, but there's little here to compare with the prowess he once showed.

A disappointing album, with little to set it apart from the pack, and only a passing nod to prog rock.

Perhaps my expectations had been deadened by the appalling LOVE BEACH, but this album is not THAT bad. Hardly good, but not that bad. Sure, there's lots of dull-sounding 80's synth tones and AOR-isms galore. But Emerson's Hammond playing still manages to shine through here and there. And "Desde La Vida" is a relatively enjoyable piece. Robert Berry is a bit of a nonentity; not bad, but never doing anything to leave an impression on the listener.

So, yeah, on the level of "old proggers go AOR", this isn't as good as 90125 or DUKE but is quite a bit better than , BIG GENERATOR, GTR or anything by Asia. Probably on a par with ABACAB. How's that for damning with faint praise?

After Greg Lake and Keith Emerson had another falling out, Emerson, Lake & Powell was no more. So Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer (free from Asia at this time) joined together with Robert Berry (who later became well known for his contributions to Magna Carta's tribute albums), and the three of them formed a band simply called 3. With or without hindsight, this name should have been considered a mistake. Yes, it's easy to remember, but who knows where a record store might file it. At the beginning of everything? At the end? Under T? Why they didn't choose Emerson, Berry, and Palmer, which would have been more marketable and have them filed either in or near other ELP releases, is something many have pondered. Well... not exactly. Very FEW have pondered this question because 3's To the Power of Three is rather disappointing. Maybe that decision was good after all, thus to prevent embarrassing the ELP namesake. No need to worry as the original ELP lineup would do a good job of that with Black Moon and In the Hot Seat in the 1990s.

I guess everybody was doing this in the 1980s. Trading in their prog roots for some good old AOR. If my memory is correct, reviews at the time called this album dismal. Twenty years later, that term still fits. At least Asia and Yes were performing fairly decent AOR at the time. 3's To the Power of Three is just plain bland. And it's not because of any single member. All three of them contribute to this album's blandness and mediocrity.

The opening Talkin' About was, I believe, released as a single and got some radio play. They did a rather modern, but bland cover of The Byrds' Eight Miles High. The rest of the shorter pieces sound similar to the shorter stuff from the 1985 release of Emerson, Lake & Powell's eponymous album and quite similar to material found on ELP's future 1990s releases of Black Moon and In the Hot Seat. The only interesting number is Desde La Vida, which had some semblance of progressiveness to it despite it's use of 1980s instrumentation.

Clearly for collectors and fans of ELP, especially those interested in the twisted sidebars of the group's genealogical tree. Future ELP releases are as dismal as this one. Robert Berry, on the other hand, actually did some nice progressive numbers as a collaborator and on his own in the 1990s. Two stars.

A generous 3 stars, this one. While it's not ELP...it's not even Emerson, Lake & Powell sounding either. It sounds more in the neo prog. tradition. Very '80s sounding with that '80s production in the vein of later '80s Saga. This '3' LP is certainly not as bad as everyone says it is, but it's not great either. Let's put it this way. If someone were to give me the choice to listen to ELP's _Love Beach_, Emerson Lake & Powell or 3's _To The Power Of Three...I would pick the latter. The best track is the 3 parter _Desde La Vida_ which can be heard on this website. It's really the only thing that hints at prog.rock. The other tracks(no real highlights) are well written AOR rock pieces with very little hit potential. Throw this album in with most inoffensive material coming from the likes of the Alan Parson Project or '80s Camel. Simply put, this is well produced music but nothing too amazing. It's as good as '80s YES or GENESIS, but not quite as good as the first 3 ASIA albums.

Palmer is back, Lake is out

After the Emerson Lake & Powell album on which Cozy Powell replaced Carl Palmer because the latter was busy with Asia, Palmer once again came back into the fold. However, this time Lake could not take part so they called themselves 3 this time. Since Lake - being the lead vocalist and writer of many songs - was a more important ingredient of ELP, his absence is more apparent than that of Palmer on the previous album. Robert Barry, who replaces Lake here, is also not particularly similar to Lake in the way Powell was similar to Palmer (musically, not just by having last names beginning with the letter p). In that way it is appropriate that they chose a radically different band name this time.

Barry sings lead vocals and writes as many as three of the album's eight tracks on his own and co-writes a further two with Emerson and Palmer. In addition, there are two cover songs. All this is a pretty clear indicator that Emerson's inspiration was running very dry. Indeed, to be honest, ELP ran out of steam already in 1974 and did not produce a good album until the promising Emerson Lake & Powell album from 1986. The 3 album is back to the quality level of Love Beach and the two Works albums. Needless to say, this is not a very good album.

The voice of Robert Barry reminds me a little bit of that of Trevor Rabin. And his effect on the music is similar to the effect Rabin had on Yes. This album fits nicely into the family of 80's albums by classic Prog bands like Yes' Big Generator. It does not lack progressive content, but several of the songs are pure AOR.

I can recommend this album only to major fans and collectors of everything ELP.

3.5 really

When I first look at the reviews of this band and album here, I see I was among the few who like this album, also I saw not many positive reviews here aswell, so what we have here??? To me is a good album all the way, two of the most well known musicians from golden era of prog Carl Palmer and Keith Emerson meets an excellent vocalist, bassist and guitarist named Robert Berry and the result was the band 3. Everybody knows who is Plamer and Emerson, but who is this Berry, to tell the truth I never heared of him untill I heared this album. He came from an unknown band named Hush who released some albums in late'70's , and early '80's and aswell has a solo career in the '90's. Now, the chemistry between these 3 guys is perfect, I mean they feel eachoter very well, they are like a single unit here, and the result contrary to many reviwers from here is good all the way. Also even the album has an AOR aura on every pieces melted with progressive moments not far from Yes (Big generator era) some Asia or GTR similarities or even ELP in places, the album is extremely well crafted for that period, when progressive music was not far from almost dead with some exceptions, we talking about 1988. I like a lot the voice of Berry , very solid voice, ok tipical for AOR, hard rock music, but here he fits like a glove, Robert Berry gives a string vocal performance as well, with a warm and steady voice that is perfectly suited for this kind of music. The album ventures into prog territory at times, such as the three-part "Desde La Vida", and closing track "On My Way Home" sounds a lot like ELP, but for the most part it is a pop-oriented rock/AOR album, and a strong one at that. In my opinion this album named To the power of three released in 1988 at Geffen is a total winner, not a single moment is weak, keeping in mind that is impossible to have another Tarkus in 1988, time are changing, and about this relase I will give a solid 3 stars, 3.5 . I was very sure that this album is low rated here, aswell in other places , but to me is a good one and I was enjoying every single piece ofr this unnoticed album.

This is not a bad album but it is not very Progressive Rock in style. Very well produced in the standars for the eighties, with very good arrangements and very typical sounds from the eighties. The predominant musical style in this album is Pop Rock....from the eighties. Anyway, this album, as other albums from other Progressive Rock related musicians released during that decade was much better than much of the music recorded by most of the Pop Rock "stars" of that period of time. So, this album is more in the same style as some albums released by Yes, Genesis, Asia, Kansas and other Progressive Rock bands from the seventies. But the very typical eighties production is so predominant that only 2 songs deserve to be considered in the Prog Rock musical style: "Desde la Vida" and "On My Way Home". Both songs have very good keyboards by Keith Emerson. Robert Berry`s vocals are very related to the Pop Rock / Arena Rock musical style from that period of time, but he is a good musician, singer and songwriter. Some of Carl Palmer`s drums sound very "eighties", sometimes sounding lilke electronic drums or even like programmed drums. Anyway, some of the Pop Rock songs are good, like "Talking About" (from which I watched a video on the TV in 1988) and "Lover to Lover". For Keith Emerson it was his second attempt in that decade to try to form a band from the remains of ELP, but it was until the early nineties with the reunion of ELP that he finally had a more permanent band and a more compatible line-up with his musical style (at least unitl 1998, when ELP split again).In comparison to ELPowell, this band was more focused in the Pop Rock musical market of the eighties, and this, their only studio album, is a more forgotten album in comparison to the only studio album recorded by ELPowell. Maybe Greg Lake`s vocals and inlfuence helped the ELPowell album to sound more related to the musical style of ELP than this album.Even Emerson`s very original style of playing the keyboards is not very recognizable sometimes, sounding a bit "lost" in this new band called "3". It is amazing how a new lead singer and songwriter contributor like Robert Berry changed the "musical identity" of some old bands and the musical styles of some musicians like Emerson and Palmer.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer seemed to be a thing of the past after they released their critically panned album 'Love Beach' in 1978. We all know that Keith Emerson and Greg Lake released an album with Cozy Powell in response to the popularity of progressive supergroups in the 80s, specifically 'Asia' which is where Carl Palmer had also gone. We also know that was not a big success and original ELP fans were mostly furious. So, Emerson, not one to let one failed attempt thwart his dreams of popularity at the time, decided to form another band similar to ELP, this time with Carl Palmer and without Greg Lake. The vocalist of choice this time was Robert Berry, who, while not as diverse and talented as Lake, was still a good vocalist. This time, the group became known simply as '3' and the music was a mix of a little progressiveness and a lot of commercial arena rock. 'To the Power of Three' was the only album the trio would release after disbanding about a year later and the original ELP would reform. Both Emerson and Berry would later reform '3' and planned on releasing a 2nd album, but unfortunately, Emerson passed away. Berry would release the album '3.2' in 2018.

'To the Power of Three' strives to make a bridge between radio friendly rock and progressive rock. All three members would contribute to the album. Starting with 'Talkin' About', a track penned by Berry and also released as a single which was moderately successful, we get a pop song with a slightly bombastic edge that begins like a keyboard-heavy ELP track, but quickly goes to a mostly standard radio-friendly, arena-rocker track with a progressive-lite instrumental break. 'Lover to Lover' gives songwriting credits to all three members of the band. This one has no progressiveness whatsoever and sound like an outdated hair metal (well, hair-keyboard in this instance) band. Not good. Bob Marlette is credited as a co-writer to the next track 'Chains'. Marlette had written songs for Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Zombie, so this might have been an attempt to sound relevant to the time. It only continued to take the album in its downward spiral as it sounds poppier than ever.

Next up, there is some hope before even listening to this track in that it is over 7 minutes long and it is divided up into 3 sections. Okay, so that looks interesting at least. The track is 'Desde la Vida'. The first subsection is called 'La Vista' and is credited to all three. The sections flow from one to the other without any indication of passing one from the other. The track is slightly heavier, but is still keyboard heavy, of course. It is also definitely more progressive especially in the instrumental section, which is called 'Frontera' credited to Keith Emerson. 'Sangre de Toro' is the last section and is credited to both Emerson and Palmer. There is a return to the verse at the beginning and a piano/keyboard/drum solo with some excellent interplay. This is the type of music you want to hear on this album, but, up to this point, it has been sorely missed. At least the music meets your expectation on this track.

Next is a cover of the classic rock song '8 Miles High' originally done by The Byrds. This version sounds pretty much totally unlike the original and turned into a simple march style which does no justice to the original whatsoever. The instrumental break is good, but that is all that's good about this track. The next two tracks are credited to Berry. First is 'Runaway' which is just dated-sounding pop that sounds more like 'Starship'. The next is 'You Do or You Don't'. This track sounds like the previous track. Hopefully they washed their cookie cutter after using it. The last track is 'On My Way Home' credited to Emerson. The song is a stately and fairly basic keyboard solo with bass and drums until the vocals come in later. There are some shades of the old ELP there, mostly the Emerson shade but it would have been considered a light song for them. There is nothing that challenging about it, but they are trying to produce an arena anthem, but it turns out to be to lackluster to create any kind of buzz.

The album is not one really for the fans, and might hold some value to those that love light progressive, very light that is. You might like it if you love 80's style pop music. But I doubt if many ELP fans would have much patience for it. The only reason that I can think of to want this album is for 'Desde la Vida', so if you must hear that track, wait until you can find someone wanting to sell the album for a buck in a yard sale. This is one for completionists.

In one of my very first reviews I gave 1 star to the poor (in my opinion) GTR which was in my opinion nothing more than an attempt to go commercial by the use of the typical 80s sound and a "hair-metal-like" singer. In this album the vocalist is not that bad. Berry does his best to sound like the Europe, but luckily fails.

For the rest, despite the good musicianship of Berry and the two monsters with him, this album has exactly the same flaws of GTR: an uninspired attempt to hit the pop market.

Strangely in some parts it sounds closer to the YES of Big Generator than to the remains of EL&P. Here and there we can still hear Emerson doing something interesting, but it's hidden between the plastic and the hair spray.

Honestly, if you are not disturbed by the standrdized sound of the worst historical period for music (not only) and need some background for your car, this is fine enough, but there's a so big amount of better stuff, even of the same kind, that I don't see a reason for doing so.

In the rare moments when they forget to look for money they place a decent track like the 5/4 of "Desde La Vida". There's a decent ballad, nothing special: Imagine Neal Morse singing "You Do Or You Don't" (not the chorus that's too trivial).

There's a little bit of the true Keith Emerson on the closer, even though it's stuff already heard.

So it's a useless album but not a complete waste if you need to have every Emerson (and Palmer) release.

Rounded up to two stars.

Ooooooh boy, not good, not good. Have you ever had one of those moments where all signs point to a product like an album or a movie or a game or whatever being utter horse manure, yet you suppress your better judgment and waste your precious time, perhaps even money on it anyway out of some faint hope that it'll maybe end up being good? ... Yeah. I knew that this album was released at a time when most progressive rock musicians were being forced to sustain themselves by putting out painfully hackneyed pop rock nonsense for mass consumption, and that Emerson & Palmer had replaced one of the most distinctive voices of the genre by a complete unknown whose biggest claim to fame is this one-time collaboration that nobody remembers, but on the other hand: um? well, it's got a multi-part suite! And hey, Emerson, Lake & Powell turned out to have at least a little bit of merit after all. It's fair to at least expect something of that standard, right? If only we were that lucky?

I don't have proof of this, but I'm convinced that this album was pumped out just to fulfil some sort of contractual obligation. Or maybe the guys just wanted a new car. All I know is that no love went into making this product at all. It is so depressingly devoid of originality and energy that I can't believe anyone involved with its creation went into it with an ounce of passion, outside of the desire to make some cash, much like Love Beach. But at least Love Beach was funny and somewhat self-aware; this is just pathetic.

I'm sorry. I suppose I should start to actually review this album by now. Well, in my review of Emerson, Lake & Powell I was trying really hard to avoid the term 'arena rock' because I thought that was a little too unfairly insulting, but this album compiles all of the worst aspects of generic arena rock. Whereas Emerson, Lake & Powell put the keyboards up front and had almost no guitar at all, this album puts Emerson completely in the background the whole time and instead drowns everything in hair metal-ish guitarwork. And not good guitarwork either. Just a load of primitive power chords to distract you from the complete absence of any worthwhile melodies, harmonies or rhythms. Then of course you alter the drum sound and make sure to remove any and all syncopation in the beats in order to make them sound like they were entered into a [&*!#]ty drum machine, and finally, you make up for the loss of one of rock music's most unique and expressive voices by replacing him with a run-of-the-mill sleazebag who sounds like everyone else in the power pop business. Except it's even worse than that because Robert Berry turns out to not even be cut out for that job. On the 'rocking' tracks he sounds really faint and insecure, while on ballads such as the atrocious "You Do Or You Don't", he just sounds like he's bored of the whole affair. There is only one song on this album that doesn't entirely fit the above description, namely the aforementioned multi-part suite, entitled Desde La Vida. While it's still produced horribly, I can't deny that there's at least an attempt to create something with a "Tarkus" vibe here, at least on the "Frontera" section. But the most intense portion of it only lasts for a couple of seconds before the band lapses into autopilot, and then eventually the arena pop sets back in on "Sangre De Toro". I mean, fair is fair, it does have a surprising little free-form piano solo at some point too but that hardly makes up for everything else.

I can honestly think of very little else to say here because none of the other songs even merit individual discussion. All I'll say is that "Chains" sounds like a poor man's version of Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name" (which already ranks among the most annoying songs I know) and "On My Way Home" makes me envision being stuck in the middle of a drunken crowd singing along to its inane chorus in a football stadium; to discover that the writing of such a piece of first-degree garbage was credited solely to the great Keith Emerson is almost heartbreaking. Well, this is just getting depressing now so I'm putting an end to this. Under no circumstances listen to this whole album in one sitting if you're keen on retaining your sanity.