TRILOGY

Trilogy was not the first album I had heard by Emerson Lake & Palmer, but it was the first of theirs I had ever owned. To me, every track on this album is a gem. It's not as bombastic as most of the early ELP albums, as here, Emerson uses (gasp!) subtlety in his approach to the keyboards. While his playing is still amazing, at many points he uses the full pallette of sounds and timbres on his piano, organ and synths, instead of full on hammering. Even The Sheriff, the obligatory honky tonk piece (which I seem to be one of the few here that likes on the ELP albums), is better than most.

But the standouts on this album are The Endless Enigma, Trilogy and Living Sin (by the way, it would be a crime if Emerson doesn't release the arrangement of Living Sin that he and Marc Bonilla have been playing live in recent years).

This one is a classic among the many classics this band once put out regularly.