PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

As I said elsewhere, I dislike albums from Trace and Ekseption and Ars Longa Vita Brevis or Five Bridge Suite from the Nice for what I find to be useless and pointless reworkings of classical stuff. This album is the exception that confirms that rule but mostly because it is quite a daring and surprising rendition of Mussorgsky's major oeuvre and ranks up there along with Japanese-Real-Synthesizer-Wizzard Isao Tomita's version . Weird and daring idea to put lyrics to this stuff, and it does work in a strange ELP way. The end piece is a spoof/poke at Tchaikovsky Nut-Cracker and is also a pleaser. However this album usually takes a lot of heat from ELPheads but also with many people into classical music. I personally applaud the audacity of this adaptation.

Well done , boys.