#131 Emerson Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery

A leftover from the prog kick.

I had a couple false starts listening to this one, just not finding myself in the mood for it. It's damned dense, focused on complex keyboard, bass and drum patterns, and it gallops along at quite a pace. It was also fighting an uphill battle, the 3 short tracks don't really move me, and opera remix Toccata is kind of interesting, but utterly inaccessible, and not especially listenable.

The reason to be here is the 4-part, 25 minute Karn Evil, which has some killer organ and keyboard solos, Gabriel-esque singing, and a great sense of drama and pacing. Its actually the small touches that set it apart from other prog epics. There's a moment at 5:32 of 1st impression where the band drops completely out for just a beat or two, and the effect is totally attention-grabbing in a way that long songs should remember to be. It sets up moments later in the song where similar drops lead into frantic vats of music. Also, as simple as it is, the melodies are good. The band finds a good hook and wields it assertively, using it as a repeating theme just often enough, leaving you just saying "man! that sounds awesome!" more often than most complex music dares.

The lyrics are uneven though, part 2 of Impression 1 brings the carnival theme to the fore and it sounds kind of ridiculous, like a Kiss song. That's not, in my book, a good thing. Also, the instrumental Impression 2 meanders a bit too much at time, losing some momentum. Coupled with the forgettable first 4 tracks, I don't think I can place the whole affair any higher than 4/5