Album title: Brain salad surgery
Artiste: Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Nationality: British
Year: 1973
Subgenre: None; pure Progressive Rock
Player(s): Keith Emerson (Keyboards), Greg Lake (Guitars, Vocals) Carl Palmer (Drums)
Familiarity: I know then and I hate them.
Favourite track(s): Still ... you turn me on
Why? Suppose I have to pick at least one, and I don't quite hate it.
Least favourite track(s): Everything else, though I would have to pick out “Benny the bouncer” for sheer crappiness. Slightly worse than everything else here.
Why? See my comments for explanation
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? Thought it would be overbearing, pretentious, a total wankfest. I was not disappointed.
Artwork: The only good thing about the album. Hell, it's HR Giger! Looks like IQ copied this a bit for “Dark matter”?
Factoids you'd like to share? No. I'm too depressed. Why was this band ever allowed to exist?
End impression: Exactly as I expected. At least I managed to stay awake this time --- third time lucky!
Comments: I tried to approach this with an open mind, I really did. But three tracks in I remembered why every time I see or hear of these guys I want to punch their smug faces in. It's not quite that it's a case of style over substance, because the talent is definitely there, but for me ELP have always typified the idea of showmanship before serious musicianship. I mean, who else fought with their keyboard, kicked the crap out of it, stuck bloody great KNIVES into it? Mark Kelly? Tony Banks? Rick Wakeman? I think not.
But personal annoyance aside, I tried to listen to the album but twice fell asleep. The opener I thought was weak and limp, “Tocatta” sounded like neither Bach nor Sky to me, and after that it just went seriously downhill. If anyone has inherited, to me, the crown passed over from Emerson, Lake and Palmer of, for want of another word, music wankery, it's Dream Theater. I just hate showy keyboard solos and complicated passages just for the sake of being there. I find little real melody you can follow in the few ELP albums I've ever heard: I've certainly never had the urge to hum any of their tunes. Just does nothing for me. If one band encompassed the overblown, arrogant, up-their-own-arses idea that got progressive rock such hatred towards the end of the seventies and into the next decades, step forward messrs Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Between you you did more to plunge the final dagger into the dying body of seventies prog rock than all the punk bands in London put together. And then you ****ed off and made more money. Shameful. Also, what's with that end bit? Excerpts from the album you just endured, sorry listened to? How ****ing super-pretentious is that???
Rating: 2.5 (And that's only because I realise it's not for me but is regarded as a classic by those with, shall we say, tastes other than mine?)