Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - Tarkus (1971)

From what I understand Emerson, Lake, and Palmer were major pioneers in the use of synthesizers, especially with respect to prog rock. The opening track on Tarkus (which would appear to have taken up a full side of the original LP) is pretty bare-bones with respect to synthesizers, though quite heavy on organ, and VERY heavy on the prog rock stereotypes. With this type of music there always seems to be a resistance to using 4/4 time or setting up a groove. Granted the arrangement is always impressive and musically interesting. It just always feels way too technical. It's weird that I would feel that way. I typically say I'd rather music be interesting than expressive, and now I'm saying prog rock might be too interesting and not expressive enough. Maybe it's so well crafted and tight that it feels cold and colorless. I don't know. Maybe it's just too much to absorb in one listen.

"The Only Way (Hymn)" starts off with a pretty awesome organ concerto. If this were anything other than a prog rock album I'd probably say it were a bit much. But right now I'm remembering when Arcade Fire decided to take up residency in an old church that featured an organ and did their own organ-backed song, and it totally sucked. Their mistake was making a boring song and just adding an organ. ELP seems to have composed a piece specifically for the organ, then extracted from that a rock song they can also play as a band. The song would have been more effective and simply incredible if they had continued to play the organ along with the main band in the song's second half, but it's still a much more appreciated approach than Arcade Fire's.

The ELP on Tarkus strikes me as very stripped down, sort of like Black Sabbath to The Moody Blues' Led Zeppelin. Black Sabbath also played some heavy hitting complex metal like Led Zeppelin, but played much simpler arrangements with fewer overdubs. Then again I haven't heard a ton of Moody Blues stuff, just their hits, so maybe they played a few stripped-down tunes as well.

Tarkus was pretty good. In spite of all the typical prog rock nonsense in the opening 20 minute song I felt fairly entertained throughout. 3 stars.