WORKS VOL. 1

A lot of reviewers that I trust have rated this album with 1 or 2 stars so I started wondering why do I like it so much. Effectively this is far from the best things produced by ELP and there are undoubtely very weak moments, specially in the Lake's side but there are things that somebody seems to dislike but I find excellent.

First of all the Emerson's side long "Piano Concerto #1". Who has liked the "5 bridges suite" of "the Nice" can find similarities in this track. There's a symphonic orchestra behind Emerson's grand piano. The piece is sometimes reminding of Eastern Europe's classical composers, I mainly think to Dvorak. I can understand that classical music experts are probably disturbed by the attempt to compose classical music by an artist that's considered a pop-star, while somebody else can find it too pretentious. For me this is a very good instrumental track more in the vein of THE NICE than that of ELP.

Then it comes Lake. As I have written, I find this side as the weakest. Too pop and creamy, with forgettable lyrics and trivial melodies, but "C'Est La Vie" is a great song and the concertina solo played by Emerson in the coda is fantastic. I quite like even "Lend Your Love To Me Tonight", but I'm used to skip all the other tracks of this side.

The Palmer's side has heights and lows, but it's surely more interesting than Lake's. "The Enemy God" and the Bach thing are not bad. "L.A. Nights" has some good jazz-funky moments and the long drum solo on this version of "Tank" makes this side worth to be listened.

The "common side" has two tracks. The first is the Aarom Copland's "Fanfare for the common man". Who is old enough can remember the trio playing it in the Montreal's stadium empty of people and full of snow in the winter of 1976, before the olympic games. It's a very good arrangment of a modern classical piece.

Finally the album's highlight. "Pirates" is a great track even if the orchestral part makes it sound like a movie's soundtrack.

So in my opinion more than half of the album is very good and the side D is at the level of the best ELP. Unfortunatley Lake and partially Palmer didn't succeed. For this reason my final rating can't be higher than 3 stars.

Should I rate them separately I'd say 4 stars for side A, 2 or less for B, 2 for C and 4 for D.