TARKUS

Tarkus is one of the best of early era ELP, and really shows their chops nicely. I've stated before that I'm definitely not an ELP fan, but the title track is a very enjoyable epic piece from the classic era of progressive rock. It is a bit noisy and random occasionally, but also contains some soulful vocals and catchy melodies. ELP has always had a way of writing technical music over musical music, which suits them well, but I definitely hate the pretentiousness of it. Most of the title track consists of the pretentious jamming rather than actual song structuring, and the following songs are ultimately forgettable in my opinion.

This is not very good progressive rock as much as it is a great album for people who like hearing people play pretentious technical nonsense.