Track Listing

1. Tarkus (Medley)
2. Jeremy Bender
3. Bitches Crystal
4. The Only Way (Hymn)
5. Infinite Space (Conclusion)
6. A Time And A Place
7. Are You Ready Eddy?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3562 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Running time: 39 minutes

Customer Reviews

One of the best albums ever!
It is rare to find an album so filled with intense ideas, beautifull melodies and aggressive virtuosity. This is jazz meets heavy metal meets Twenty Century Classical music meets Bach. In short a unique and exhilerating experience.

From the almost 20 minutes (not a second too long) suite Tarkus with it's anti war theme in a modernistic fantasy setting, to the perfect parody and homage to producer Eddie Offord in "Are You Ready Eddy" ("We've only got 'am or cheese"), this album captures the whole range of human moods and follies.

A true classic not to be missed. Furious and fabulous fun!

Most amazing about this album is perhaps that ELP got even better on their next two albums (Trilogy and Brain Salad Surgery).

Digital Pudding
I remember this from my misspent vinyl youth and decided to "upgrade" to CD.
Seems not all classic albums of this genre translate too well from analogue to digital,and the remix doesn't help any.
If you really want this album,go for the vinyl.
This CD version sounds as if the remixing desk was first immersed in a vat of cold rice-pudding,with some additional helpings of pudding shoved into the monitors.
Reminds me a bit of when everyone rushed out to buy a Dolby noise reducing tape-deck,you know,where you could listen to your audiotapes with the little green light either on or off?
Mostly it was turned off for exactly the reasons I cited previously.
The thickness of the pudding sound doesn't wear any easier with listening either,however the drum rolls on Carl Palmer's snare defy the pudding and sound like a sudden attack of tinnitus.
Having fiddled with my graphic equalizer I just cannot find a setting to suit.
A pity really as the recording quality and the subtlety of the composition of the title track is lost in,well,er pudding actually.
However,still orchestral pomp rock at it's best,or worst depending on your viewpoint.
I've given it 3 star status for those reasons alone.
and because it scared my parents at the time.

The best ELP album
This is ELP at their best. From the anti-war title track to the awesome Hymn.There is no weak track, you just have to listen to it all every time.