Showing posts with label
Artist: Emerson Lake and Palmer.
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Showing posts with label
Artist: Emerson Lake and Palmer.
Show all posts
Tracks
- Promenade
- The Gnome
- Promenade
- The Sage
- The Old Castle
- Blues Variation
- Promenade
- The Hut of Baba Yaga
- The Curse of Baba Yaga
- The Hut of Baba Yaga
- The Great Gates of Kiev/The End
- Nut Rocker
Pictures at an Exhibition is a daring album. The music is progressive rock. Emerson, Lake & Palmer perform an abridged version of the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures of an Exhibition. The trio includes weave their own material into the piece.
I'm really impressed by this album. Any rock band that performs a substantial portion of classical music in concert has a set or brass balls for there are just too many ways that it can fail. The music could be too esoteric, modern instruments may not sound appropriate or the band may just not have the technical skill to adapt the piece.
At first I had no idea what the band was performing and so the album seemed pretentious, self-indulgent and gratuitous. (Perhaps that is why they choose to perform classical pieces.) However, once I figured out what was going on, it all made sense and my opinion of it completely changed.
I think this album is worth listening to, but I can see that this might be more of a novelty album to most people. I do think it belongs on the 1001 Albums list. There just aren't many popular music groups performing classical music. Also, Keith Emerson must be the one responsible for keyboard instruments supplanting the guitar as the choice for lead instrument in a vast number of prog rock bands—this album is serious evidence of that.
All the songs sound great. I think the second half—the Baba Yaga suite—is the more interesting part of the album.
★★★★★★★★★★
Tracks
- Eruption
- Stones of Years
- Iconoclast
- Mass
- Manticore
- Battlefield
- Aquatarkus
- Jeremy Bender
- Bitches Crystal
- The Only Way (Hymn)
- Infinite Space (Conclusion)
- A Time and a Place
- Are You Ready Eddy?
Tarkus is an extravagant/fanciful album. The music is progressive rock. The band devotes the first half of the album, Eruption to Aquatarkus, to a fanciful story of Tarkus, a futuristic armor-plated armadillo-like war machine that battles several enemies until it is defeated by the Manticore and resurrected as the Aquatarkus, an aquatic version of itself. The song is apparently a commentary on the futility of war. The remainder of the album are self-contained songs.
This album demonstrates excellently all the vital elements of a prog rock album. First, there is a concept song which extends close to or more than twenty minutes. Second, the song is a mix of instrumental and lyrical parts, both of which tell the story. Third, the concept topics are fanciful, surreal or allegorical stories which reflect on human nature. Fourth, the commentary is equivalent to a an philosophical essay written for a freshman Intro to Philosophy class. Fifth, the instrumental parts must be over-indulgent demonstrations of the musicians' abilities.
A problem with prog rock is that there is a very fine line between a compelling story and sheer nonsense. If any of the elements mentioned above veers into the absurd the whole concept is ruined. Another problem is that even the best prog rock bands have a hard time avoiding an absurd concept song or album.
This is a decent album. The Tarkus concept doesn't work for me and the instrumental parts aren't all that interesting. I also don't find much interest in the second half of the album. I do think this is worth hearing and worth being on the 1001 Albums list because it really is a textbook example of prog rock music in it's finest(?) form.
All the songs are decent, but there really aren't any stand outs.
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
