Tarkus

Really like a 4.5 but rounding up for being such a clear inspiration on final fantasy music

If I wanted to listen to a bunch of nerds on keyboards run up and down scales in weird time signatures, well, I'd listen to this. But I don't, so I won't. The cover rules though.

Prog Rock. No thank you.
One twenty minute long prog rock song.. let me out!

Nonsense

How delightfully bizarre. Although it became a bit to discordant for my tastes in places. Also, Ready Eddy did not seem to fit in at all.

Inspirationsloses Geklimper auf die Instrument der 70er. Ein nicht endend wollender Titelsong. Ein bisschen Jazz, ein bisschen Experimentieren und etwas Jive führen eben nicht zwingend zu interessanten Songs. Das schönste am Album ist das Cover - der Inhalt ist schlichtweg mies.

Greg Lake has the perfect voice for this genre, and the production/arrangements/instrument choices on here are all I want from a prog record.

4/5

Great album. The songs Tarkus and Bitches Crystal are the best for sure. Jeremy Bender and Are You Ready Eddie? are a bit out of place. All around a great listening experience, but not a perfect album. 3.5/5 -> 4/5.

I liked the progressive nature of this, but that synthesizer is annoying to me. 3/5

I gotta say, Tarkus was a really weird album, another one i can add to the stockpile of weird albums i have done for this project. It felt like every song had something completely different to offer. But that is what makes it pretty good. The songs were all very interesting and used influences from quite a decent bit of genres. It is a weird album but it works pretty decently actually
Best Song: Tarkus (i. Eruption / ii. Stones of Years / iii. Iconoclast / iv. Mass / v. Manticore / vi. Battlefield / vii. Aquatarkus) (I'm counting these all as one song because thats how Spotify and YouTube do it as well)
Worst Song: Jeremy Bender
(Side note: I also like how the armadillo on the cover art kinda looks like a sub-boss from the Mega Man Classic series)

One of my favorite things to do while listening to EL&P is to go find two diametrically-opposed reviews of them and laugh at how polarizing a band can be to the listening public. This album is like a peasant woman dressed up to go to a fancy ball, and when she gets there, the noble ladies ask her, "Who made this astonishing dress?" She admits she did, and they are incredulous. Back at home later that night, she holds he dress up in the moonlight and admires its craftsmanship. "I don't see what's wrong with it," she muses to herself.

I'm not averse to a bit of prog, but this is pretty fucking dreadful.

"were you there to watch the earth be scorched?"

I listened to this album like a week ago, before I'm doing this review, sorry for any inaccuracies. This album consisted mostly of the first song (20/38 total minutes). It truly felt like an experience that I went through. At best, showed similarities to Pink Floyd, and at worst, embodied all of the worst parts of jazz and rock.

Infinite space went on the playlist, idk why.

3/5

Starts off with an amazing 20 minute epic but then the rest of the album is compromised of sub 4 minute songs that dont go anywhere or build off of the first track. Had so much potential but fails to deliver

I like the idea behind this album, it feels cool to have such a synth heavy prog album, pretty much removing any signs of guitars, but all it really does is open my eyes to how much guitars are needed for an album like this. The whole album, even the twenty minute song to an extent, felt like a build up to some amazing pay-off that never really came. Unless you count a weird rock n' roll track at the end as the payoff. Still, I will give it credit for the attempt here, and the church organ on one of the later tracks was the closest the album got me to feel like something here was truly trying to do something that wasn't done before.

This is like Dollar Store King Crimson, and is more similar to the music of Yes with its heavy reliance on synthesizers in place of guitars. I found that it spent more time ambling about than it did actually pushing an idea or a narrative. Even the longest prog rock songs (the good ones at least) always have a defined beginning, middle, and end. This album (and especially Tarkus in particular) feels more unpolished. Almost like they had an idea, got off to a good start, but then couldn't find the finish line.

Overall, the album wasn't bad, it just wasn't as cohesive as other prog rock bands of the 70's.

Favourite songs: Are You Ready Eddy?, Jeremy Bender

Least favourite songs: A Time and a Place

3/5

If I wanted to hear three dudes jacking each other off, I'd have gone to pornhub.

When I listen to this the first thing that comes to mind is how crazy it would be to see it performed live. Then it hits the fourth track "The Only Way" and it loses its momentum and never recovers. Sick album cover though.

Cool prog rock! That was probably mindblowing back in 71. Don't see myself putting it on again.

Pictures At An Exhibition is one of the handful of albums Iv given 1 star. So when I seen another ELP album this morning I let out a big sigh.

And the first song backed up my first conclusion another album of listening to computer game keyboard sounds. To be fair the album did get better as it went on and some of the shorter songs were enjoyable. But not enough to convert me.