#391: Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Tarkus (1971)

Emily: Emerson, Lake & Palmer sounds like it should be the name of a '70s soft rock band, the kind that wears Canadian tuxedos and big mustaches and plays exclusively on adult contemporary radio and in waiting rooms. But then I saw that their album had a robot armadillo on the cover, so I knew that I was in for something totally different. Tarkus (which is the name of the aforementioned armadillo, according to Wikipedia) starts out with a 20-minute prog rock jam session. The rest of the album consists of much short tracks that continue the prog sound, with jazz and classical influences and a couple tracks that wouldn't be out of place in a particularly proggy church. I still don't understand where the armadillo plays into all of this, but I'm glad the album defied my expectations.
Favorite Tracks: Tarkus; Bitches Crystal; A Time and a Place

Zack: Prog rock has been so hit or miss, so it was nice to find that this album struck a happy medium between weird and listenable. The weirdness, which mostly shone through on the 20-minute title track, isn’t an abrasive kind of strange, but more like things just sound a bit off, like the entire album is just slightly positioned off center somehow. It gives it a sort of kooky vibe that I actually quite enjoyed. Once you get past the first track, which I need to reiterate is more than 20 minutes long and more than half the album’s total length, all the songs sort of breeze right by. I was working on my prospectus throughout the album, so I wasn’t necessarily paying the most attention that I could have, but it seemed like an album well-deserving of its art, in its general nature of making you both slightly confused but sort of appreciative.

Favorite Tracks: Tarkus; Are You Ready Eddy; The Only Way (Hymn)