BRAIN SALAD SURGERY

Emerson's last great album, after this one, ELP started going downhill with their works, the poppy love beach, the mediocre Black Moon, and the disaster 'on the hot seat'

JERUSALEM (7.5/10) Starts the album nicely, it is a short but good accessible piece. IT is followed by TOCCATA (6/10) which is very interesting, yet too chaotic for many people's tastes. STILL YOU TURN ME ON (6/10) is a not so great ballad from Greg Lake with a decent electric guitar chorus. BENNY THE BOUNCER (3.5/10) .. why do they keep ruining their albums with this kind of silly music???

The Second Side is Karn Evil which I would rate it an average of (7.5/10) as a whole, It is an attempt to create Tarkus II, It is very good, but it doesnt' reach the level of their previous work.

Pt 1 (9/10) is a great starter of the album and my favourite part of it. It contains AMAZING musicianship, plenty of good solos, and nice drumming. The main sticky melody appears close to the end.

Pt 1 1/2 (8.5/10) follows the beginning well, with that very sticky 'welcome back my friends...' line. The line is followed by great hammond organ work.

Pt 2 (4.5/10) I can't help but not like this part. It is just a dull jam that is mildly interesting. I think it kills the piece, and I don't understand the purpose in it. It is filler for me.

Pt3 (7.5/10) This is ELP at their most pretentious and pompous, they even have machine voices in this track. This is an overall good piece with one of the most creative endings in the history of Rock : An electronic loop that rotates around you (on headphones) that keeps going faster until it stops suddently.

Overall, I recommend this album to ELP lovers, but it is not essential at all I think, and it is far from being a masterpiece. Instead, download the part 1 of Karn Evil here on progarchives.com and you will have the best part of hte album

My Grade : B-

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