release date: Jul. 6, 1972
format: digital (1987 reissue)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,88]
producer: Greg Lake
label: Warner-Pioneer, Japan - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "The Endless Enigma (Part One)" - 6. "Hoedown (Taken From Rodeo)" - 4. "From The Beginning"
3rd studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer originally released on Island Records in the UK and by Atlantic for the US market. Prior to this, the band released its first live album, Pictures at an Exhibition (Jan. '72) - a rock-interpretation of the classical work by Modest Mussorgsky. The style is and never was a favourite of mine. The band, however, has iconic status. In the huge pile of symphonic rock and prog rock artists of the early 70s, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Genesis, and Mike Oldfield were the most tolerable and interesting, imho. Having said that, this album has probably been a great source of inspiration for some, or perhaps even all of the aforementioned and many other artists of the period. The way the first track starts out with the sound of a heart beat perhaps came to more fame when Pink Floyd extended that use on The Dark Side of the Moon, released almost one year later. Together with Pink Floyd and Yes, ELP was one of the pioneering band in terms of broadening the musical possibilities within popular music by including elements from classical music and through experiments with music based on synthesizers more than traditional guitar and bass. In my mind, this is the band's most tolerable album.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]
