By 1977 the trio of Emerson, Lake & Palmer had gotten massively popular, started drifting away from each other, and honestly, really lost touch with the evolving musical landscape of the time. Instead of producing another prog rock master, ELP put together an incredibly self indulgent collection of solo works, with each member assembling compositions that highlight their own musical instruments and interests and just two cuts on the fourth side where they actually play together. It’s not all bad or anything, just incredibly pompous for the time… and this is the first of two volumes. If there’s a definitive moment at which big arena filling prog bands lost their mojo, this could be it.
Edit: The Carl Palmer side of this album rocks the most, by far.
1977 US pressing on Atlantic.
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