Bad albums made to fulfill contractual obligation - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Hosydi wrote:

Logan wrote:

Love Beach?

Love Beach is not a bad ELP album at all, despite its Bee Gees-style sleeve design. On the contrary, it offers a compelling prog rock characterized by musical diversity and intricate compositions.

Concur...if you want a REAL ELP stinker, try sitting through "In the Hot Seat"...Ugh!

Criswell wrote:

stinker

True prog connoisseurs' favorite old-timey word apparently.

“On the day of my creation, I fell in love with education. And overcoming all frustration, a teacher I became.”
— Ernest Vong

Valdez wrote:

King Crimsons "Earthbound"... Theres a good story behind that one. Recorded on a cassette player outdoors IIRC. Although I wouldn't call it a BAD album. But it does sound like a bootleg and features Boz Burrell on Vocals. Best version of Schizoid man IMO. Too bad it wasn't recorded nicely.

... i agree this is just a "bootleg quality LP"
nevertheless the Schizoid version is a great track

Psychedelic Paul wrote:

Michael Oldfield - Heaven's Open Thumbs Down

not great but title track is awesome, one of Oldfield's many fine pop songs

Hrychu wrote:

The Sicilian Defence by Alan Parsons Project is another example.

Ok for a thematic Chess game sisiclian defense

1.e4 c5 (thematic answer leading to the Sicilian defense)
2. White to play

I knew someone was going to say Love Beach.

I think Triumph’s Surveillance was put together a bit piecemeal as they were headed for a split, but it has a couple of good songs on it and even a little dueling Steve Morse and Rik Emmett on guitars. Still not as solid as most prior albums (Allied Forces, Thunder Seven, Never Surrender, Just a Game, or Rock ‘n Roll Machine) but better than Sport of Kings and Progressions of Power … IMHO.

Wasn't Amarok kind of a F-you/middle finger to Mike's record company?

...that moment you realize you like "Mob Rules" better than "Heaven and Hell"

Love Beach is pretty bad following only 4 years on from Brain Salad Surgery. Terrible keyboard sounds and half baked half finished compositions. For You is a decent Lake/Sinfield song and that's pretty much as good as it gets. In The Hot Seat was a disaster with Emerson and Palmer both recovering from operations to their hands for carpal tunnel syndrome. Victory Music went under shortly after as the album bombed. ELP got back up and touring a few years later but never played a single track off that album at any point. That is telling as it gets. In fact as a combo they never played any track off Love Beach either although Carl Palmer did resurrect Canario for his own band.

richardh wrote:

Love Beach is pretty bad following only 4 years on from Brain Salad Surgery. Terrible keyboard sounds and half baked half finished compositions. For You is a decent Lake/Sinfield song and that's pretty much as good as it gets. In The Hot Seat was a disaster with Emerson and Palmer both recovering from operations to their hands for carpal tunnel syndrome. Victory Music went under shortly after as the album bombed. ELP got back up and touring a few years later but never played a single track off that album at any point. That is telling as it gets. In fact as a combo they never played any track off Love Beach either although Carl Palmer did resurrect Canario for his own band.

While Love Beach has received excessive criticism over the years, it deserves reevaluation based on its musical composition, lyrical content, historical context, and evolution of the ELP sound. Fans should approach it open-mindedly, rather than dismissing the album only based on less engaging forum discussions lacking substantive arguments. They will certainly appreciate its unique contributions to ELP's body of work.

Having read about The Single Factor: I consider myself a Camel fan and few hours ago Mirage was playingi in my car. Said so, I actually rated it with one star here on PA. I consider it a stinker with some nice passages and a lot of rubbish like You Are The One (Maybe this should have been the hit single?). I partially save Camelogue and Heroes, but the rest...

I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution