Sunday, February 24, 2013

ELP #4- Trilogy

Trilogy- 1972
Rating: 13
If I hear Greg say "Coca-Cola" ever again, I'm going to smash something
Best song: The Endless Enigma (all parts)
Worst song: Living Sin

     This album is Greg Lake's favorite album by ELP. To quote him: "I do like Trilogy. It is my favorite ELP album. It couldn’t be anyone else. It truly is a definitive album. It is the very best of ELP in a way. It’s got flashes of all the best things of what we were." I would agree it does have quite a few of the best things ELP was, but the album does have it's mistakes (one in particular).

     The first song is "The Endless Enigma Pt. One", which is the 1st part of the three-song suite. It begins with the heartbeat drum made famous by Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon". However, this was the first use of that skill, and gives the song a cool effect. After the first minute and thirty second of stop and starting piano, the song features his Emerson's Hammond and turns into a nice Lake song. The lyrics are great, even if occasionally questionable. Suddenly, the song starts it's ending by going into a weird piano part that transitions into "Fugue", the next part. "Fugue" is simply a very beautiful Emerson piano piece. It is perfectly placed between both parts of "The Endless Enigma".

     "The Endless Enigma Pt. Two" is a lot shorter then the first part, and begins with good piano that eventually turns into a synth part with a bell as the only percussion. That turns into the next part of the Lake ballad. The lyrics are pretty good. Lake then yells out the final word, and the synths quickly end the song. The entire suite is incredible. After that is "From The Beginning", which is another excellent Lake song. It starts off with just some nice guitar and Lake's singing. The lyrics are, as usual, great. There also appears to be bongo drums in the background, but I can't confirm if that is what they are. After that part comes an electric guitar solo. That solo goes into an Emerson solo until the song ends.

     "The Sheriff" is the next song, which proves that ELP developed a formula: One suite each album and one joke song. This formula was started in "Tarkus". Anyway, "The Sheriff" begins with laughing and talking until Palmer does a couple drum fills. These eventually lead up to the song. The lyrics tell the tale of Josie, who is wanted by the sheriff. Josie hides, gets caught, and then shoots the sheriff. This is highly entertaining, and Keith's keyboard solo in the middle serves as sort of a break. The song ends with a gun shot, followed by Keith playing his awesome Honky Tonk piano. Then comes "Hoedown (Taken From Rodeo)". This is a superb cover of Aaron Copland's original piece, and the Hammond organ plays the main melody. Lots of synths are added around that part.

     Following that is the title track. This is a very cool song, and has two parts. The first part has Emerson playing some nice piano while Greg sings his lyrics. Then Emerson slowing transitions into a faster piano piece that turns into a fast paced keyboard/synth war. It sounds pretty amazing, and is basically a giant Emerson solo fest. Eventually, the song changes and Greg begins singing again. The lyrics are good, but not anything special. After the short singing part, Emerson solos again until he creates a slow ending. Now, the album may seem as though it is spectacular. That changes quite a bit with the next song.

     The song that comes after "Trilogy" is the horrible "Living Sin". Greg delivers a deep voice, which sounds stupid and unpleasant. The keyboard line that starts the song sounds almost awkward, but Emerson quickly starts to play better, but he really doesn't do anything special to make the song stand out. Palmer's drums are good, but, as with Emerson's line, nothing special. Normally, the lyrics would be good, but this song's lyrics are really bad. I mean, the line "Hooked you up with coca-cola coming... nice and slippery" is a new contender for "WLE (Worst Lyric Ever)". Not only is that lyrics bad, but it sounds even worse with Greg's deep voice. The only good thing about the song is that Greg uses his regular voice during parts of the song, but this still classifies as garbage.

     The last song is "Abaddon's Bolero", which is pretty good in all. It starts off quietly and with not too many instruments, and then slowly increases in instruments and volume. These parts also have a better keyboard line, and the rest of the instruments have to build off that keyboard line. This effect sounds pretty awesome.

     I believe that this album is very good. It's just a shame that they included a terrible song such as "Living Sin". Fortunately, after reviewing this album, I never really have a purpose to listen to it again. Anyway, "Trilogy" is a great album, even though it has some bad flaws.

No comments:

Post a Comment