CHANGING STATES

This is not a bad CD. It's not a great one either. But for Keith Emerson fans, it's a treat. And it features Kevin Gilbert. That makes it a double treat. It also marks (as far as I know) the first appearance of Marc Bonilla on an Emerson album (Emerson had previously appeared on one of Bonilla's disks).

The result, while nowhere near as spectacular as the better ELP albums, is still a good listen. The two poppier songs, Shelter From The Rain and The Band Keeps Playing are not bad, but the chorus section of the latter song is a bit too cheesy for my tastes. The remainder of the song are typically eclectic for an Emerson album. There is a tasteful piano piece, Ballade, a nice jazz cover, the wonderful take on Summertime, and the reworked classical piece, Montagues and Capulets, the Prokofiev work later recorded by ELP.

But the highlight here is the rocked out version of The Church, originally from one of Emerson's sountrack projects. This great song would have fit very well on any of the classic ELP albums.

In progness and quality, I would put this below the classic ELP disks, but before anything that ELP did since Welcome Back My Friends....

I'd rate this 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.