TARKUS

ELP's second album took their musical potential to new levels with more fast'n'furious keyboard driven progressive rock, spawning one of prog's very first side long suite's with the opening title track at 20 minutes that depicts the very strange tale of the armadillo/tank hybrid featured on the cover and all its violent encounters with other similarly morphed creatures, before its ultimately defeated in the end. It's cleverly illustrated inside the gatefold of the original vinyl cover though the lyrics themselves doesn't really add much to the overall story. The music is often energetic and adventurous, drenched in Emerson's keyboard wizardry, Palmer's sharp drumming and tricky transitions from one battle to another. It's an intense piece right from the start that also have several great melodic moments and stand out as ELP's most iconic piece of music besides the even more ambitious 'Karn Evil 9' from 1973's Brain Salad Surgery. The second side features shorter pieces that does have a really good run with tracks 3-6, while 'Jeremy Bender' and 'Are You Ready Eddy?' stand out as more "joke"-like tracks to fill out the side, but they're still OK enough though not anything special compared to the rest here. The title track is still an essential piece of early keyboard driven progressive rock and is reason enough to get this album; the Tarkus tank on the cover would probably agree with me even if this gets listened to at his expense. Definitely recommended.

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