Pictures at an Exhibition

Mmmm hmmmm…

To be fair, I don’t think listening to this sleep-deprived in the fever-induced haze of a viral infection did it any favors. On the other hand, I don’t think there are any conditions in which I would enjoy it.

This alternated between "unlistenable chaos" and "meh" for the whole album. The synthesizers were over the top and screechy for the most part and the album's largest detractor. And then fucking Christmas music at the end? I'd rather have tinnitus than listen to any type of Christmas music

⭐⭐

Absolute gratuitous prog rock wankery and its a live album too so it just feels endless and the crowd are eating it up as they cheer so loud at the beginning when they announce what they are about to do... It insists upon itself.

Fine...

Ein überambitioniertes Live-Album, das mehr Eindruck schinden will als musikalisch überzeugt. Die Adaption von Mussorgskys Werk verliert sich in bombastischen Synthesizer-Soli, überladenen Arrangements und einem unstimmigen Mix aus Klassik und Rock. Technisch brillant, aber emotional kalt – ein Paradebeispiel für die Selbstverliebtheit des frühen Prog-Rock. Zwei Sterne für den Mut, nicht für das Ergebnis.

ngl, this goes hard. ridiculous in all the best ways

Not so much bad as it is useless

Oh wait it is bad

Oh dear it is bad

First, ELP didn't need two albums on the 1001. Tarkus was enough. Second, this album demonstrates all the excesses of ELP (usually held up to represent the excesses of prog - which is a shame because I'm a prog fan and even I think ELP is too over the top). It may have been groundbreaking (and popular) at the time, but it hasn't aged well. In general, I wasn't a big fan of Side 1. Mostly Emerson showing off (as per usual). Lake's original The Sage wasn't bad, even if he lifted part of the acoustic guitar line from King Crimson's Epitaph (which he co-wrote, so I guess there's that). I liked the first section of Side 2 a lot - the full band Promenade followed by the three Baba Yaga tracks. Those tracks rocked and show that Mussorgsky was metal 100 years before metal (at least his composition style was).

This sent me down the rabbit hole, learning about the original Mussorgsky composition (originally composed for piano) and Ravel's famous orchestral arrangement. I then spent time listening to recordings of both versions. Definitely had a preference for the orchestral version. The Apple Classical app recommended an amazing version by the Berlin Philharmonic (conducted by Sir Simon Rattle in 2007). Absolutely amazing - go listen to it, especially The Gnome, The Catacombs (you want metal? The second part of the Catacombs is titled in latin, "Cum mortuis in lingua mortua" - "With the dead in a dead language" - raise your metal horns!), The Hut of Baba Yaga, and the Great Gates of Kiev. Why am I talking about all this in my review of ELP's album? Because you're wasting your time listening to ELP's version. It pales next to the original. As an example, I got chills listening to the symphony version of The Great Gates of Kiev but was underwhelmed listening to the ELP version (yes, despite all the explosions). It probably didn't help that Lake's singing was particularly weak on this track and the lyrics were cheesy ("Death is Life"? Whoa, deep, dude). I can appreciate the skill it took for ELP to play this, and the audience sounds like they went wild for it, but this is one case where I can see why people crap on prog rock.

What people who don't like prog rock see prog rock as.

Sincerest apologies from the UK to the rest of the world for subjecting you to this.

This is very silly, but the weird keyboard tangents are out of this world.

I know i have been giving out 4s like I'm Oprah Winfrey giving out cars lately but that's just because these albums have been so good and Pictures At An Exhibition is one of those albums. This album genuinely shocked me with how not only good, but weird it is. Each of the songs had a very different vibe from each other (except for the ones with the same name) and each of them had quite a lot of quirkiness to them from the bleeps and bloops of some songs to the heavily blues inspired songs. The sound quality was also very good and it never at any point got tedious. This is just another album i really like.
Best Song: The Old Castle
Worst Song: The Sage

It’s an interesting idea, but I can’t say I really liked this. I like progressive rock. I’ve given 5’s to Yes, King Crimson, and Genesis, yet something about ELP just doesn’t really appeal to me in the same way. Favorite song was Blues Variation.

Después de Tarkus, que me gustó, intenté escuchar este y entre que era en directo y que era muy experimental no me gustó. Vamos por otro intento. Vuelto a oír y me ha parecido aún peor. No le voy a dar una estrella porque la reservo para los grandes bluff.

3.75 funky bluesy renn faire? Sign me up.

Kiinnostava yhdistelmä klassista ja progea, mutta ehkä hieman kompastuu matkalla toteutukseen. 3/5

It's pretty outstanding, actually. It's not normally my thing, but it's incredibly ambitious. I don't normally look into the albums until after I listen, but I took a peek at this because it is so unique and weird in a really cool way. Turns out it's a rock interpretation of a piano suite by a Russian composer.

I'd say there's a little too much 60s rock organ in this, but overall, it's really quite cool. I won't listen to it on repeat, but I'd definitely listen again for fun, and I'm pleased that I had the chance to hear it. Bonus points: it's a tight, 38 minutes.

i'm normally all for just noodling around on a synthesizer but i found this to be a chore to get through. yet another live album that did not need including

ah fuck i've been gnomed