BRAIN SALAD SURGERY

In my opinion this is the peak of ELP and also one of the best and most original progressive rock albums ever recorded. All ELP albums before Brain Salad Surgery are good or excellent, but you can clearly hear the group's development up until and including this album. ELP was never to do anything near this level of genius ever again, and also the good stuff on the albums to follow wasn't progressive rock, but all over the musical map, spanning from classical to ragtime piano, and most of it was individual efforts rather than group collaborations. Pirates from the first Works album is decent, but stripped of all its window dressing like the symphonic orchestra, it comes out as a rather banal composition compared to what's on Brain Salad Surgery. Keith Emerson's piano concerto is enjoyable but it still sounds like a 100 years too late compared to other contemporary classical composers. Some of Greg Lake's songs on Works 1 are also nice but has very litte to do with progressive rock.

Brain Salad includes a couple of covers (if you may call them so) which is generally not a good thing in my opinion, but ELP's rendition of the English hymn Jerusalem and the experimental adaption of Ginastera's piano piece are truly original and interesting. The original material is even better. The suite Karn Evil 9 consisting of three "impressions" is very varied and doesn't really contain a dull moment. Greg lakes ballad Still You Turn Me On is one of his best and the arrangement is original and tasteful. The vaudeville kind of bagatel Benny The Bouncer is a perfect dot over the i, and it adds a smile to the record making it escape the risk of being perceived as too bombastic or pretentious.

ELP and Keith Emerson in particular had a sound and a tonal language of their own. While may progressive bands played intricate compositions, many of them had a rather straight forward major/minor scale approach to the melodies, and those progressive groups that went beyond this mostly incorporated jazz and jazz rock elements. ELP stood out in this regards, many of the melodies and harmonies were stuff you had not heard before and did not hear among their contemporaries. You still not hear much of it today.

The general originality of ELP + this being the best in a row of truly good albums is the reason I give Brain Salad Surgery 5 stars. This was to me just as an essential album as the Dark Side of the Moon album by Pink Floyd that was released the same year - truly one of the best years in the music history if you ask me.