Changing States [Import]

Keith Emerson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 3, 2001)
• Format: Import
• Label: Amp
• ASIN: B00005RYAE
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,674,000 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Before The Re-beginning, June 24, 2006

By 

The Old Rocker (SF Bay Area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Changing States (Audio CD)

If you're looking at this CD then you already know who Keith Emerson is and ELP (or The Nice). Recorded at various sessions at the very tail end of the 1980's this is Emerson's return to his classic ELP sound. In fact three of the tracks here were re-recorded on the ELP come back disc Black Moon. On this disc the tracks Another Frontier, Ballade and Montagues and Capulets became the tracks Changing States, Close To Home and Romeo and Juliet on the ELP reunion disc.

Strangely, I find all three tracks to be warmer and more truer to Emerson's real style than the over produced sessions on Black Moon. The late Kevin Gilbert, producer and musical contributor to this disc, had a better understanding and insight to Emerson's sound than Black Moon producer Mark Mancina. Here the playing is looser, more organic and less electronic than Black Moon. And if that seems contradictory for a Keith Emerson album then you need to go listen to early ELP before the Moogs overtook the organ or even earlier still, listen to The Nice.

This is Keith in transition, after ELPowell and "3" with Palmer and Robert Berry. Done with the excess of the 1980's pop-prog he is really getting back to his roots here. The band gets equal footing with guitar, bass and drums and you can tell by the sound he had fun with these sessions. There are two attempts at late 80's pop with vocals and the rest are surprisingly good instrumentals. There's even a remixed orchestral version of Abaddon's Bolero with Kevin Gilbert playing tuba.

Not on par with his classic '70's ELP work, but much better than any other album he put out in the 80's or 90's, this is essential listening for any die-hard Emerson or ELP fan.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Keith Emerson and company, April 5, 2007

By 

Stuart Paine (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Changing States (Audio CD)

I had this recording for 3-4 years before selling it (as part of one of my periodic shelf clearings). During that time I never could hear the three soon-to-be BLACK MOON tracks (those which would become "Romeo and Juliet", "Changing States" and "Close to Home") in any other light than as rehearsals for the later ELP album. I suppose that might naturally be the case in that I had already heard BLACK MOON dozens of times before this, but there's more to it than just that. Emerson modified these pieces between recordings - in the case of "Another Frontier" ("Changing States") quite significantly - and they just seemed to me better realized with Lake and Palmer, although these are very good performances. I also think the recorded sound of BLACK MOON is far superior to this - sculpted with both more strength and clarity although, again, this is not bad.

To my ears, CHANGING STATES doesn't have the ELP sound, but something else more akin to THE NICE. There's a considerable amount of guitar in here and, while it's not exactly Steve Hackett, it's well played. I personally didn't mind Lake's absence at all, but the band's sound didn't appeal to me nearly as much as that of the Emerson/Berry/Palmer group THREE, which I think was both magnificent and quite unjustly criticised.

Only two tracks other than the ones I've already mentioned really grabbed me: "The Church", Emerson's chilling mephisto-theatre-organ main title for an Italian film LA CHIESA (also available on EMERSON AT THE MOVIES and on the soundtrack album - music by Emerson and GOBLIN), and "Shelter from the Rain", a rousing number which is one of my two favorite not-so-well-known Emerson songs (the other being "Nighthawking") and which I must admit to missing now that I no longer have this disc.

On the downside, I thought the re-recording of "Abaddon's Bolero" with orchestra (THE NICE again?) was a throwaway. Who really needs it? That kind of indulgent reminiscing is cool live, and would have fit right in on FIVE BRIDGES, but simply doesn't impress in this context. The reprise of "The Band Plays On" struck me as a time filler and the inclusion of "Bolero" almost a desperation move. The Gershwin also did little for me. I suspect that CHANGING STATES was cobbled together out of odd projects; the album seemed to me to be missing something, and every time I listened through I would wait for more at its conclusion. It's certainly not a great album, as BLACK MOON would so very nearly be. (those weak Lake contributions!)

Still... it's an interesting listen. Recommended.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Rare 1989 Emerson solo project (revised opinion), August 18, 2007

By 

Gareth Davies-Morris "dodgem-dude" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Changing States (Audio CD)

It's worth qualifying that with the exception of the orchestral Abaddon's Bolero, this is a collection of unreleased demos that Keith recorded in 1989 that didn't appear on CD until 1995 (reissued a few times on Griffin & AMP, and perhaps elsewhere). Having never seen Cream of Emerson Soup (the project's working title, I believe), I don't know if it was ever released under that name in any form.

Demos, it's also worth qualifying, don't have to mean demo quality; these are all excellent, fully-formed, & well-recorded pieces that continue nicely the pop-prog stylings started with Love Beach and continued through ELPowell and Three. In fact, the two vocal numbers here wouldn't be out of place on To The Power of... at all, and the album was recorded at Richard Berry's studio, backed with a group of California musicians, and produced by the late Kevin Gilbert (Toy Matinee, Sheryl Crow), all circumstances consistent with the sound and level of complexity of the music here.

The problem is simply that most of the tracks, excepting the least interesting, appear in similar or better versions elsewhere. Here's how: the exact same takes of Summertime and Interlude resurface on Emerson Plays Emerson; Ballade, Montagues & Capulets, and Another Frontier are all retitled and reworked (the latter especially) for Black Moon; and The Church is an entirely different performance (just as driving a rhythm but simpler and more hard-rock in its sound) from the soundtrack version now on Emerson At the Movies. As for the orchestral Abaddon's Bolero, in which Gilbert adds his own tuba part in place of the familiar Emerson bass moog section, it's the same take now found on the quite decent odds & sods collection Off the Shelf. Besides, fans can hear an orchestrated yet truly ELP performance on the expanded ELP In Concert.

The only other pieces unique to Changing States are the two hard-rock tunes Shelter From The Rain and The Band Kept Playing (the latter also appearing in a longer, better remix as a bonus track). Both are fine songs that join the handful of strong vocal tunes on Emerson's other solo projects (Children Of The Light, Nighthawking, Playing For Keeps, For Those Who Win, Not So Innocent, etc.) to show that the pop-prog of Three wasn't a fluke -- and I like all those songs much better than the lone 3 album. But pop-prog isn't the same thing as prog-rock, is it?

Finally, the packaging on the AMP reissue is rather cheap, almost bootleg in its graphics and printing, though it has witty liner notes by Gilbert, at least. Changing States is hard to find but is certainly worth getting if you're a completist or want to hear some alternate versions of familiar tunes. After several months of listening, I'm pleased to say that I've grown to like this album considerably, and even a 3-star Emerson album is better than much else out there. Just the same, the less ardent fans will probably be just fine without it.