BRAIN SALAD SURGERY

I can never understand why there are so many ELP haters out there. Sure, after this album, the quality went down. Eventually way down. But there are plenty of other great prog bands whose output declined even more than this band (Genesis, anyone?).

Sure this is bombastic, overblown, and showy. But that's part of what made ELP so much fun. And this is one of their finest efforts. They even make the British standard Jerusalem big and majestic, making you want to stand up at the pompous lyrics.

Toccata, ELP's first foray into the works of Ginastera, is a complex wonder of early synth genius, with amazing drumming by Carl Palmer.

Still...You Turn Me On is a nice quiet song, despite having the silliest lyric on any Grag Lake song: Every day a little sadder, a little madder. Someone get me a ladder. ?!?

Benny The Bouncer is a cool honky tonk song. Many people here don't like these forays on ELP's albums, but I've always found them to be a nice diversion.

And finally, Karn Evil 9 is one of the great prog epics, a suite in three parts that rivals, and even surpasses in many ways, amazing epics like Close To The Edge and Thick As A Brick. Here, Emerson shines as both composer and player, weaving incredible keyboards whether in classical, jazz or rock styles, all of which are blended amazingly.

This is almost as close to perfection as an album can get.