TRILOGY

The third studio-album by ELP, logical called 'Trilogy', is without any doubt the very best album the band made. The debut-LP comes very close to this one, but 'Trilogy' is a little more balanced and contain more (and better) vocals and variation. The second LP 'Tarkus' is only strong on Side A. Side B only contained two good tracks (The Only Way [Hymn] and A Time And A Place) but they even were not fully ELP-magic. The live-album 'Pictures At An Exhibition' was very good, but in my opinion, it fails a little because it's a live-recording. On 'Trilogy', ELP really show what they can do as players and composers.

The first track 'The Endless Enigma' is a track that contents ALL elements of ELP's music. It's one of the most beautiful melodies I ever heard and the song gives me a special kind of feeling. A feeling that makes me wish I was a teenager in the 70's instead of in the 90's. 'From The Beginning' is pure acoustic guitar-magic by Greg Lake, with another excellent melody. The song sounds a little 'dark' and sad, but it's really beautiful. 'The Sherrif' is a funny song, comparable with 'Jeremy Bender' from Tarkus, but way better. Note Palmer's fine drumming on this one. 'Hoedown' closes Side A. Not a brilliant piece (it's not from ELP by the way, but from Aaron Copland) but played well on Hammond.

Way to go with Side Two! It opens with the title track, and as the title says, it can be split into three pieces. The first piece is a magnificent melody, sung by Lake and accompanied by Emerson's piano (some wonderful classical piano-work). The second piece is a powerful, bombastic Moog-solo by Emerson and the conclusion follows with a final theme with the full band. Also perfect drumming and percussion here. 'Living Sin' is quite an odd track in ELP-terms, but a very good one. Everything sounds very low-key here, especially the Hammond. Note the brilliant vocals by an angry Greg Lake! The ending of the album is a Bolero. Probably one of the weaker tracks on the album, but it's not bad. Probably, 8 minutes is a little too long for only one theme, which kills the exciting feeling this bolero could have given.

I will grant 'Trilogy' six (!) stars, because this album has the quality to belong to the 10 best symphonic albums ever made. Every song is good, and ELP never beated this. And in that case it's a shame that 'Brian Salad Surgery (1974)' was such an artistic dissapointment.