EMERSON, LAKE & POWELL: EMERSON, LAKE & POWELL

In the eighties, several progressive bands and solo musicians were having success recording albums which were more accessible for the listener (Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Yes, Pink Floyd, GTR, Asia, Kansas). In 1986, it was time for "ELPowell" to record an album with a mixture of Progressive Rock with some Rock and Pop elements. As I know Cozy Powell because he played with a lot of bands (Jeff Beck , Rainbow, Black Sabbath, etc., most of them Heavy Rock Bands) and also recorded some solo albums, I think that this album is very influenced by him, but I also think that Emerson and Lake really wanted to sound more accessible as the other musicians that I have mentioned before. I like this album very much. I only have the L.P. and cassette versions which I bought in late 1986, so I never have listened to the bouns tracks included in the C.D. version. "The Score" has very good keyboards, with Emerson playing the "new keyboards" of the eighties. It also has very good drums, and Lake still sings very well in 1986. "Learning to Fly" is shorter, with a very good keyboards section at the end, which connects this song with the next, "The Miracle", another good song. "Touch and Go" was played in FM Radio in my country, and I also had a video which was broadcasted very few times on T.V. It has very good keyboards too, and Powell plays simple but effective drums. "Love Blind" is another very good "pop progressive" song."Step Aside" is influenced by Jazz, and in this song the trio showed that they could play in any style.It is mainly played on piano, with background synthesizers. "Lay Down Your Guns" is a "peace song", and this is the only song of the album where I think there is a guitar played by Lake, which sounds for me more like a guitar synth, playing a solo at the end of the song. Lake is credited in the back cover of the album as playing basses and guitars, but I can`t say if in the other songs he played guitar too, as this album is dominated by the keyboards. "Mars" is the last song of this album, with a good arrangement, but it is not very interesting fo me as the rest of the songs. This album is another very good example of the "more accessible Progressive Rock of the Eighties" of some bands and solo musicians. The cassette version has a better sound than the L.P., and I agree with a previous reviewer who wrote that this album has a lot of reverb in some places. It is one of the things that I don`t like from this album, but it is still very good.