review by thomas

The debut album by media superstars E.L.P., claimed to be one of the first so called supergroups. Keith Emerson (ex The Nice) on piano, organ, grand piano, Moog and synthesizers, Greg Lake (ex The Gods, King Crimson) on bass, vocals and guitars and Carl Palmer (ex Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster) on percussion made one of their first public appearances at the Isle of Wight festival '70. At the Royal Festival Hall (Royal Albert Hall?) the same year the group recorded "The Three Fates: a) Clotho; b) Lachesis; c) Atropos" which in fact was an eight-minute solo piece by Emerson. It points to the future: Emerson in the limelight doing pointless piano solos lasting an hour or two. "Tank" featured, besides some really good keyboard work, an in-the-studio-standard-drum-solo by Palmer, a well known trick if you are in need of some extra minutes to make it over the thirty minutes barrier, just ask the Italians!

Side A - consisting of "The Barbarian", "Take a Pebble" and "Knife-Edge" - are actually quite good with some tasteful organ work from Emerson and good bass and guitar work from Lake. Then we also have the hit-single "Lucky Man" present on the album, a song which reportably introduced many a people to the synthesizer. The song is otherwise a kind of folkish and acoustic affair, but not something you remember with great affection. Should they have managed to stay focused throughout the record and not rushed things (here I think of side B) it could have been a real good album. Sadly, it's not.

Apparently both the group and the record company were so eager to capitalize on the attention created by the media that the quality of the music produced was overlooked.