Customer Reviews

Black Moon

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Black Moon...ELP's comeback album in 1992 may not have been a complete return to the early albums such as Tarkus and Brain Salad Surgery but netherless Black Moon is a ELP album for the 90's.

The title track and Paper Blood are among the best songs on the album. The lyrics are very much about today's world and are drivin home with the powerful sound ELP has long been known for.

While Greg Lake's voice has deepened a bit over the years, he still has a very powerful voice and can still sing with grace and force. The ballads Affairs Of The Heart and Footprints in The Snow are touching and beautiful to listen to.

The instrumentals Romeo and Juliet and Close To Home continue to show ELP's vast musical talents. Keith Emerson's amazingly diverse and and complex keyboard work is still a delight to listen to and Carl Palmer's drumming is rock solid and continues to show a nice touch with his percussion playing.

There aren't any epic sized songs here but this a great album netherless. A most welcomed return for...Emerson...Lake...& Palmer!

After taking a long hiatus after recording their previous album ("Love Beach"), ELP made a strong comeback with "Black Moon". This CD is packed with top-notch ELP songs that contain Keith Emerson's strong keyboards, Greg Lake's great bass and vocals, and, my favorite, Carl Palmer's unparalleled drums. Typical of previous ELP albums, this one has several insturmental tracks ("Romeo and Juliet", "Changing States", and "Close to Home"). Each band member shows their individual talents on these songs. Also, there are two excellent Greg Lake ballads, "Affairs of the Heart" and "Farewell to Arms". These songs showcase Greg's outstanding vocal talents and his extreme vocal range.

I've been an ELP fan for years, and I'd rate this CD as one of their best. Pick it up and enjoy some great prog-rock at its best.

"Live at the Royal Albert Hall" (1993) was decent, and "In the Hot Seat" (1994) plain reeked. In lieu of ELP's regrouping during the 1990's, "Black Moon" is by far their best-sounding album of this decade. Every track, except "Romeo & Juliet", continues to strike deep accord with my ears! "Changing States", "Farewell to Arms", "Paper Blood", and "Better Days" are my personal favorites; I will never become bored listening to each of their spry keyboard melodies from the ever-quirky Keith Emerson! When I first purchased the album in 1992, I barely recognized Greg Lake's distinct vocals, but that's just the plain result of a 13-year hiatus! Even with age, Greg, Keith, and Carl sound fabulous as ever on "Black Moon"! This CD definitely compensates for the lackluster dross played in "Love Beach" (1978).

Emerson, Lake and Palmer was the first Progressive Rock supergroup, but the glory days are over and the magic is gone when they released this 1992 album, their first studio effort in a dozen years. It is not a question of their technical proficiency, because Keith Emerson remains my favorite keyboard artist and is in fine form, as he shows on "Changing States" and the piano solo on "Close to Home" (this was a few years before hand surgery affected his playing ability). However, from the start of this album with the title song and "Paper Blood" it is clear that these are much simpler songs than we recall from the past, with few bursts of the wonderful complexity for which ELP was rightly known. For me there is also the concern over the aging of Greg Lake's voice, which is really unrecognizable. In the days of my youth that was the voice that I most wanted to have (e.g., the live version of "Lucky Man" on "Welcome Back My Friends"); but instead of my voice becoming more like his it is the other way around, which is not a good thing. That is an admittedly personal problem, but on the professional level Lake is doing less of the songwriting than before and the best track on the album is the adaptation of the classical piece "The Dance of the Knights" from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. "Footprints in the Snow" is a minor Lake composition at best, which is another disappointment. ELP was one of my favorite all-time groups, and hearing them play lesser songs without the fire that made them famous, is just another sign that we are all growing old.

Though this album is a bit of a mixed-bag, it is fairly consistent with some of their earlier works. Some of the pieces, like "Paper Blood" are very pop-oriented and weak. But, others like "Changing States", "Affairs of the Heart", and "Burning Bridges" are just outstanding. Frankly, this is one of their more polished works to date.

Pretty good record, if a bit boring in places ... "Paper Blood" has a verse that is a revamp of the verse of "Money Talks", a song he and Geoff Downes did in the Ride The Tiger project .. "Paper Blood" is a more well-rounded song, than the aforementioned ... The title track is kinda boring ... there are some other catchy songs, here and there ... "Affairs Of the Heart", a tune he did with Geoff Downes, which I guess Keith did the keyboards on here to make it an ELP song (with some light percussion from Carl toward the end) - is a great, haunting song. "No one is too smart, in affairs of the heart ..." .. More true words may never have been sung. It's a kind of simple mid-range/low vocal, but Greg sings it with such conviction you believe it has just happened to him. That's my pick of best song on the album. The ELPowell album is a better record than this; the main issue is it just drags, in places ... fails to be interesting. Greg has said in a couple interviews, in the '000s that the producer at the time was involved too much with the direction the album took, and the chemistry was not the same as on albums like Trilogy and Brain Salad Surgery. Well on ELPowell they had a producer and that album had great chemistry, as far as I'm concerned .. But one can see where Greg is coming from. In his 60s now, it's got to sort of burn him up how on radio today (and on videos, OMG, on videos) the young people are subjected to these paper stars, (like Lady gaga, Nicki Manaj, Black Eyed Peas ... I go on), and told 'This is kool' by the music media ... When in the mid-70s and one record in the 80s he and his band made real music for a music industry who wanted real music. Everybody liked "Touch and Go", and thought it was kool .... It's indeed a different age, and time will see if music, as a whole can ever possibly recover ... Good album, if not their best .. 76%

Black Moon has to be one of THE most underrrated albums in the history of music. First of all, The timing of the album and its featured sound were out of sync. So what? Evidently, people were listening to alternative in the early 90's, along with grunge. ELP experienced the "Boston Effect", as that group struggled with sales with their later releases, due to the music being outdated for a particular point in time. Why do people care so much about what's popular? As long as it sounds good, it shouldn't matter WHEN the album came out. ELP gravitated toward a more popish sound for this album, to accomodate what people were listening to in 1992. The result? Alienation of it by disappointed fans. So, what we have is a paradox--no matter which way you turn, fans are unsatisfied. They want an album that's consistent with what's current, along with those who want their old stuff on every album. Now, the songs: These extremely talented guys put out a nice variety of songs to appeal to many people. The title track (while not my favorite) is nonetheless a strong opener. PAPER BLOOD is a fairly solid song that sort of picks up where BLACK MOON left off. AFFAIRS OF THE HEART is a great song, and is one of the few ballads that ELP did, and they pulled it off easily. When listening to this song, you're reminded of just how versatile these guys are. ROMEO AND JULIET is classic ELP in the familiar instrumental capacity. FAREWELL TO ARMS is an awesome display of Greg's vocals. Greg can be a great vocalist--he just has to have the right type of song, and this one showcases his talent best. I will add that Greg does some great acoustic work on this album, as well. CHANGING STATES, BURNING BRIDGES, and BETTER DAYS fall into the same category of pop rock strength songs. They're pop rock with a little more punch. CLOSE TO HOME is classic Emerson on piano, and he does a superb job as usual in this instrumental. The album closes with FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW, which features excellent acoustic work by Greg. Again, his voice shines through this one, and reinforces how good he is on the slower songs. Overall, I give this album 9/10. This is 90's ELP, and it's great.

Black Moon is one of ELP's best albums. The classic rock pieces, Paper Blood and Better Days, are as good as earlier ones. The Greg Lake ballads are equal with, if not better than his old classics. Emerson's Close to Home is a brilliant piece and masterfully played. The contrast between an acoustical quitar and the electric keyboards plays well throughtout the CD. I'm just waiting for a new album to come out.

This album, which preceded one of those "reunion" tours, became a personal favorite. Though a bit different than what I expected from ELP, the trio showed it still had the fire burning with "Black Moon".

The title track sets the tone, and the band is obviously pushing technology again on this great album. "Romeo & Juliet" is powerful and breathtaking. "Paper Blood" simply rocks. The depth of the lyrics matches the music perfectly in "Farewell to Arms". The instrumental offering "Changing States" is also pretty strong, if not sounding a little tailored for a TV sports theme.

Someone told me and I have to agree: it's is a great disc for the car. It is a shame though, there really hasn't been anything new (good, anyway) from this band since...

I've been looking some negative reviews here on this site about this wonderful, magnific release. Well, all I can say is: this album are so damn good than the old material, just a little bit different from the others. It's an evolution state, every progressive band tends to change their sound after some years, but not all of them keeps their identity and the quality of their compositions like this three old guys! I mean, yes, some songs like Black Moon, Paper Blood, Burning Bridges and Better Days seems to be a kind of pop, but still good, I loved it all! The group didn't lose their identity as I told you, and it's very visible in wonderful compositions like Romeo And Juliet, Farewell To Arms and Changing States. Affairs Of The Heart is another beautiful song with the Greg Lake acoustic signature, and if you want some classes of feeling and technique on the piano, Close To Home is for you! So, don't waste your time and hurry up to get this fantastic release! I can put it together with Trilogy and Pictures At An Exhibition in the group's masterpiece gallery! C'EST LA VIE!