Review:

on 2011-03-26 CharlesMartel Said:

Utterly ridiculous. I saw a copy of this in my local HMV and was on the verge of buying it. But then I remembered what it sounded like all those years ago when I first heard it and came to my senses. I admit that one of the big draws of the album - no, scratch that! The biggest draw of the album - is the cover. A tank-armadillo hybrid is just what this genetically modified world needs right now.

The Tarkus of the title is such a hybrid. Born in a kind of apocalypse of humanity, this creature grows and evolves into the heavily armoured behemoth of the cover, destroying everything in its path until it is finally dispatched by the Manticore of ELP's own label to a watery semi-grave beneath the oceans. All of this in one epic Yes-style overblown prog rock titan of a track. Turn it over (as you would do with any vinyl) and you get six of the most dreadful tracks you are likely to hear on any prog rock album. They have nothing to do with the first side and it would appear that they are here solely because the band needed something to put on the B-Side to make sure they had a full album. Okay, I grant you, Keith Emerson displays his virtuosity as he works his way across the keyboards. After all, if prog rock was not about virtuosity then it was about nothing. But Greg Lake seems lost, as if he woke up one morning and realised he was trapped in the wrong album.

The title track is supposed to be some parable about the horrors of war and man's tampering with forces he can barely understand, let alone control, in pursuit of his hubristic ambitions. Throw in a bit of pub philosophy about religion here and there on the B-Side and there you have it. Emerson, Lake and Palmer felt they had a message to bring to humanity and they needed to wrap it up in some concept of classical style music played with modern instruments (witness the knob-twiddlings of the moog synthesiser - an ungainly beast of its own in 1971).

In its day, as music emerged out of the sixties, prog rock was supposed to be the thinking man's music. It was supposed to be able to take us to that higher plane where we all gain a greater understanding of life, the world, the universe. Like many a twelve or thirteen year old, I found that beguiling and fascinating, relevant to my life. By the time I reached fifteen I realised this was all a load of twaddle. Coming back to it years later, it just comes across as pretentious pontificating. Listen to this if you want to hear some keyboard played really well, but if you are looking for any deeper meaning, forget it. Music went through this phase when it was growing up. And, just like myself, having grown up, it can only look back on this sort of nonsense with a sense of embarrassment. The best thing I can find to say about it, in truth, is be thankful this isn't Yes.
Rating: 3/10