PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

Pictures at an Exhibition was a pretty gutsy album to make, considering the popularity of original suite. It was certainly done justice, though, as they usually do for reinventing works of the classical realm.

As Usual, they throw in their own twist, even drastically changing/completely creating new pieces, as in "The Sage" and "The Old Castle". Lake also wrote lyrics for "Promenade" and "Great Gate", which I think actually work really well. As a whole, they kept their signature sound throughout the album, and managed to give a good interpretation of the suite. Ending the album is "Nutrocker", which is a cover of a 60's adaptation of the march from "The Nutcracker" (and one of their more popular songs). Overall, just a really solid live album. They didn't spend too much money on it but it came out just fine. My only criticism is that they didn't do the whole suite or at least more of it, although some of the songs would clearly be hard to adapt to a rock format.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Highlights: "The Gnome", "The Sage", "Baba Yaga", and "Great Gate of Kiev"