IN THE HOT SEAT

I am surprised by such a low rating and criticism of this album. Apparently, I am not a biased connoisseur of purity of style and not a very picky critic. But I consider In the Hoat Seat a very worthy work, although not ideal. And you can greet it more warmly if you forget for a while about the greatness of ELP and their brilliant albums of the first half of the seventies, do not expect them to return to the level of Tarkus or Trilogy. Those who are now 50 years old and older, remember, how much of what you do 20 years ago do you allow yourself now, are you as active and energetic in your creativity as you were then?

Perhaps my assessment is influenced by the fact that, given the appropriate mood, I can equally comfortably listen to King Crimson or Asia. The main thing is the mood. Maybe all three of ELP were tuned to the Asian wave, considering where Carl Palmer returned to the group from. And perhaps the health problems of Carl Palmer and Keith Emerson, and the crisis of ideas played a role, someone wrote above about the influence of the record company, which wanted an album with a more commercial sound. Most likely, a combination of reasons was to blame, but remember, it was not only ELP that made such music at that time. I can recall Union and Talk by Yes, We Can't Dance by Genesis, Pink Floyd's The Division Bell, where little remained from the classic sound of the bands that once wrote the history of progressive rock.

So in the case of this album, the music only in places resembled the great virtuoso and expressive ELP, except for the magnificent high-speed and full of drive Hand Of Truth with an instantly recognizable keyboard part, and Thin Line, also with a little improvisation by Keith Emerson. The songs are mostly leisurely and minor, the musicians do not demonstrate their fantastic improvisational abilities, sometimes it really seems that they are just practicing. And songs like Daddy, Give Me A Reason To Stay, Gone Too Soon, Street War seem like they were written by another group and for another group. But if you tune in to this wave and accept the rules of the game, then personally this album is much less disappointing than the average score of 1.78 out of 5, which is relevant at the time of publishing my review, shows.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the remake of Pictures At An Exhibition, a bonus track that completes the album. A good way to remind a new generation of their listeners about world classics and their own classic album of the same name. Even if only fragments of it are heard here, even if Greg Lake's voice has changed almost beyond recognition, and the sound of Keith Emerson's synthesizer has become completely synthetic, the orchestral imitation sounds dignified and majestic. This is the very thread that connects ELP with their origins and reminds of them in every chord. An ending that harks back to the beginning. The circle is closed. A fitting way to end the last album.