News of Mobile Fidelity\u2019s intent to reissue Emerson, Lake & Palmer albums was greeted with joy by audiophile progressive rock fans, a small but passionate group. Tarkus <\/i>is supposed to come out down the road, but of course MoFi had to start at the beginning with the band\u2019s debut.<\/p>\n
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ELP <\/i>was one of the first successful progressive rock albums, arriving the same year as less-polished albums by Genesis, Pink Floyd and Yes before their classics were recorded, and one year after Greg Lake had left King Crimson after recording In the Court of the Crimson King<\/i>. Casual fans and classic rock radio listeners likely know it from the hit \u201cLucky Man,\u201d a gentle acoustic number that climaxes with an overblown synthesizer solo, but that\u2019s actually one of the weaker numbers on the album.<\/p>\n
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From the outset, ELP knew who they wanted to be, which gives the record a self-assurance but an almost playful feel that\u2019s a far cry from the Serious Statements that would come soon enough. There\u2019s an almost sprightly spring to \u201cTank,\u201d the midsections of \u201cThe Barbarian\u201d and \u201cTake a Pebble,\u201d the offhand vocals to \u201cKnife Edge\u201d and of course the innocence of \u201cLucky Man,\u201d a feeling that the band soon abandoned in favor of longer epics and endless keyboard solos. It\u2019s a sound that only really came back on Works Vol. 2<\/i> but by then it was too late and the world had moved on to punk, disco and arena rock.<\/p>\n
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All that is to say ELP <\/i>has a unique sound and feel, and MoFi captures this well in the remaster. Prog rock is a natural fit for an audiophile remastering effort, bringing out the sounds and feel that the band tried to capture; it\u2019s far more appropriate to labor over the sound of an intricate 12-minute multi-part suite than, say, side 2 of Van Halen\u2019s hangover album Fair Warning.<\/i><\/p>\n
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The instruments are sharp and clear throughout, bursting out of the speakers like the band is in the room. The telling point for me was \u201cThe Barbarian,\u201d the instrumental opener; the opening section concludes with a very loud guitar (or bass?) chord that holds its note and fades, slowly, into the second half. Fans of the album know exactly the chord I mean. When it burst out of the speaker, my 12-year-old son said \u201cwow\u201d admiringly.<\/p>\n
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The remaster also clarifies the sonic details; the quieter acoustic pickings of \u201cTake a Pebble\u201d were almost inaudible before if you were talking or on the other side of the room, but now they have been emboldened and balanced with the piano parts that surround it. The approach also works with the church organ on \u201cThe Three Fates,\u201d though that number is largely forgotten in any ELP collection (even the four-disc box set), and for good reason. \u201cTank\u201d also sounds fine, but exists only as a showcase for Carl Palmer\u2019s drums in the middle section instead of an organic part of the track\u2026almost as if they said \u201cHey, between Emerson wanking around on \u2018Fates\u2019 and Greg Lake naively slumming through \u2018Lucky Man,\u2019 we didn\u2019t give Carl a chance to show off yet!\u201d (Seriously, Side 1 is much better).<\/p>\n
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The album itself gets a B; I gave it an A- 20 years ago in my initial review but subsequent listens have rendered the second side less enjoyable. The remaster, though, clarifies and sharpens the details, as well as allowing the album to be issued on vinyl again for the first time in a long while. Fans will love it, though no doubt as a tideover for Tarkus <\/i>and, possibly, Brain Salad Surgery <\/i>down the road. Hats off to Mofi for doing a stellar job with this one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":35350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5955],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-47243","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-emerson-lake-palmer","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47243"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}