EMERSON LAKE & PALMER

This was one of the first prog albums I bought, the first ELP album I ever heard, and the only ELP album I can stand to still listen to, although I'll admit it's years since I'd heard it before today. Generally speaking I think ELP went on to embody most of the worst traits of progressive rock, but that would be later. This is the most restrained ELP would ever sound.

'Take a Pebble' is the highlight for me, and the main theme would not have been out of place on a King Crimson album at this time. Very melodic, and I've never heard anything from Emerson to top the work he does here. Sometimes less is a whole lot more. Nothing else on this album grabs me nearly as much, but it's all listenable. 'The Three Fates' comes the closest to that later pompous ELP sound that I really don't enjoy, but I don't mind it here. I've always felt that this one track in particular was a huge influence on the progressive rock that would come out of Italy in the years following this. I could have done without the drum solo on 'Tank'. I don't mind well-written pop music, but 'Lucky Man' does not fit that bill for me. The moog solo, although probably quite remarkable at the time, in hindsight feels really out of place on what was otherwise a very conventional song.