TO THE POWER OF THREE

Despite Love Beach providing a damning Exhibit A that he wasn't really cut out for a Genesis-style pop group makeover, Keith Emerson tried again in the 80s with 3. A bid for the Toto/Asia market, the album proves that Emerson (here in partnership with US singer, guitarist and songwriter Robert Berry) could write decent enough AOR material but the likes of Chains, Lover to Lover and You Do or You Don't just weren't catchy enough to trouble the charts.

I do have a soft spot for the opener Talkin' 'Bout mainly because it must be the most pompously bombastic and overblown AOR song I have ever heard, and therefore thoroughly enjoyable to my ELP-loving ears. Those of you with more delicate sensibilties may find it somewhat painful. The best tracks are the cover of the Byrds Eight Miles High with some nice drumming from Carl Palmer and a groovy Emerson syth solo. Then there's On My Way Home, a quite touching tribute to former Nice manager and Charisma label boss Tony-Stratton Smith, which is written as a march and has a very Nice-style feel to it. Desde La Vida is the bone thrown to us proggers and quite a tasty one it is too. More pomp and bombast and some real demonic aggression are thrown into its seven minute, three- part structure and in my view it's the best prog track that Emerson had produced since Pirates, and better than anything on ELP's subsequent Black Moon.

Overall this record is rooted in the eighties, from the production sound right down to the unfortunate mullets that all three members sport in the band photos. I'm also not a massive fan of Berry's rather generic-sounding vocals and if 3 had had the more characterful voice of John Wetton to front their material they may well have been more successful. Despite my hatred of most things 80s I still play this from time to time which is more than I can say for the output of Genesis from that era, so a generous three stars.