TRILOGY

The album happens to be my favorite out of the entire ELP discography. Trilogy might not feature the band's best composition, title awarded to Tarkus, nor is it a great band effort but it has a great sense of consistency plus a few highlights to help it along!

Since most of the ELP albums lack a great overall feel, this release definitely sounded like a breath of fresh air the first time I heard it. I also have a weird nostalgic feel for this album's 2,5 minute intro! I kid you not, just time it for yourself and you'll see that it's an intro of epic proportions that can even be matched by those of Pink Floyd! The stuff this band goes through over the course of that lengthy intro is worth the price of admission all on its own merits, but we also have a magnificent tune to back it up, as a bonus. I'm referring to the excellent, but highly overlooked The Endless Enigma suite which, to me, is easily among the band's three top compositions. Greg Lake's lead melody is just top notch and the keyboard interludes by Keith Emerson make it truly shine! For once, the lyrics actually feel very strong and I usually get goosebumps while hearing Greg Lakes vocals towards the end. This shows to me that Lake was competent enough to handle the lyric department and that there wasn't really a reason to recruit Peter Sinfield for Brain Salad Surgery.

The rest of the album has a great supporting role to the introductory highlight. From The Beginning is easily my favorite out of Greg Lake's acoustic performances and The Sheriff is an unexpectedly effective joke country-themed tune that puts both Jeremy Bender and Benny The Bouncer to shame! Hoedown finishes off side one on another highlight where Keith Emerson gets another moment in the spotlight. Side two has only there tracks and a much more subtile direction, which might make it less accessible but, to me, this is where the band really showed how far they could push their artistry. Revisit it a few times without side one and you'll learn to love it.

Overall, this is an excellent album experience well worth checking out by both experienced prog rock fans and beginners. This is unfortunately the only ELP album that gets a high excellent addition-rating and it's pretty much a downhill slide from here on out.

***** star songs: The Endless Enigma (Part One) (6:42) Fugue (1:57) The Endless Enigma (Part Two) (2:05) Hoedown (3:47)

**** star songs: From The Beginning (4:17) The Sheriff (3:23) Trilogy (8:54) Living Sin (3:14) Abaddon's Bolero (8:08)