WORKS VOL. 1

When everything started to go down the drain.

EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER's fifth studio album "Works I" is not even a shadow of the great records the band recorded before; this double LP is divided in one side for EMERSON, one side for LAKE, one side for PALMER and one side for EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER but further than the band's side, the individual sides of the album are completely disappointing.

EMERSON's side: The album starts with "Piano concerto" by Keith EMERSON, an 18-minute song that as the title suggests, is another piece of EMERSON showing his talent as a piano player, he took this one further than other pieces of the same nature though, the length of the piece is exaggerated, and sometimes it got repetitive and boring, it's not the worst song on the album but it is not something I would like to listen very often.

LAKE's side: On his part of the album, Greg LAKE played five mostly acoustic guitar songs but, honestly, he sounded as if he was trying to become an average POP singer with a total lack of inspiration and originality; the most famous song on this side of the record (and I'd say the only song that is not horrible) is "C'est la vie" (the translation from French would be "That's life", it is a good song but not one of the best compositions of LAKE (I've never heard a Greg LAKE's solo album and this side of "Works I" is the main reason not to do it).

PALMER's side: Oh, boy, the songs on PALMER's side of the record are probably the worst: not even the song with Joe WALSH's contribution is any interesting, and the re-recording of "Tank" was absolutely unnecessary.

EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER's side: The first song on this side is "Fanfare for the common man", once again we can hear ELP playing as a complete band instead of his members' mediocre (sorry for using that word but I couldn't find a more accurate adjective) attempts to create good music, this is one of the most popular songs of ELP and one of the first I've ever heard, but certainly they have much more interesting songs than this. "Pirates" is probably the best song on the album: it would have fit very well in "Brain salad surgery", I'd probably rate this album with just one star if it wasn't for this song.

SONG RATING: Piano concerto, 3 Lend your love to me tonight, 1 C'est la vie, 3 Hallowed by the name, 2 Nobody loves you like I do, 1 Closer to believing, 2 The enemy God dances with the Black Spirits, 2 L.A. Nights, 2 New Orleans, 1 Two-part invention in D Minor, 1 Food for your soul, 1 Tank, 2 Fanfare for the common man, 3 Pirates, 4

AVERAGE: 2

PERCENTAGE: 40

SONG RATING: 2 stars

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