Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 12/26/2005
Run Time: 41:14
Lively, ambitious, almost entirely successful debut album, made up of keyboard-dominated instrumentals (
"The Barbarian," "Three Fates") and romantic
ballads (
"Lucky Man") showcasing all three members' very daunting talents. This album, which reached the Top 20 in America and got to number four in England, showcased the group at its least pretentious and most musicianly -- with the exception of a few moments on
"Three Fates" and perhaps
"Take a Pebble," there isn't much excess, and there is a lot of impressive musicianship here.
"Take a Pebble" might have passed for a
Moody Blues track of the era but for the fact that none of
the Moody Blues' keyboard men could solo like
Keith Emerson. Even here, in a relatively balanced collection of material, the album shows the beginnings of a dark, savage, imposingly gothic edge that had scarcely been seen before in so-called "
art rock," mostly courtesy of
Emerson's larger-than-life organ and synthesizer attacks.
Greg Lake's beautifully sung, deliberately archaic
"Lucky Man" had a brush with success on FM radio, and
Carl Palmer became the idol of many thousands of would-be drummers based on this one album (especially for
"Three Fates" and
"Tank"), but
Emerson emerged as the overpowering talent here for much of the public.
~Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
;)
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