Customer Reviews

Love Beach

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

If ever there was a rock album that had tomatoes thrown at it, both of the verbal AND of the real kind, it's "Love Beach" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Okay, so the band only recorded this album as a contractual obligation. Okay, so the band's "Oooh, What Studly Men We Are" cover photo is a riot. Okay, so the suggestive lyrics to "Taste Of My Love" are pretty vile. Okay, so Greg Lake booming "I'm gonna make love to ya!" over and over again at the end of the title track gives one pause. But OTHER than that stuff, this is a very good ELP record. "All I Want Is You" is a very-pleasant opening number. "For You" is a great song---it might have even been a strong hit single for the band. "The Gambler" is a tasty slice of blues/pop. "Canario" is a fine instrumental ELP workout. And don't tell me that the sidelong-epic "Memoirs Of An Officer And A Gentleman" isn't powerful, classic ELP, 'cause it most certainly is. This beautiful suite alone is worth the price of admission. What a shame that Keith, Greg, & Carl never played this buried treasure live...."Love Beach" will always be considered a "throwaway" album. Noted. But despite it's flaws, there is absolutely, positively some excellent ELP material on "Love Beach." It isn't their masterpiece, but it certainly isn't a total washout either. So please ignore the album cover and just enjoy the album's musical gems (and there ARE gems). 3 stars. Uncle Alan says check it out. :-)

This is the nadir. Awful pop songs by Greg Lake - I mean, honestly, he sounds like Neil Diamond! - and oddly uninteresting, unenergetic keyboards from Keith Emerson, that seem to take us back to the "Nice". The embarrassing Greg Lake songs provide the album's one highlight. One of the songs is a piece of "I'm a stud, me" sexual boasting, and includes the line, "Climb on my rocket and we'll ride..." And Emerson comes in with the "horn" button on his tinny-synth, and makes a sort of "A-ROOT! A-ROOT!" noise... Laugh! I nearly.

For completists only. The least bad track is "Canario", and parts of "Memoirs of an officer and gentleman" almost work, though most of it doesn't. I own this, because I'm an ELP nut, but even I never actually play it. There's nothing on it that needs hearing.

I call this the worst ELP album because I don't believe the reformed lot who did "Black Moon" and "Hot Seat" are ELP at all. What's worse, because I'm a huge fan of Greg Lake, and generally think that his solo songs and collaborations with Emerson are the best stuff on the early albums, the person most at fault for the horror that is "Love Beach" seems to be Lake. He wrote the MOR songs, he - along with Pete Sinfield - wrote the dreadful and sometimes sadly sexist lyrics, and he did the awful hammy singing. I don't know what had happened to Greg Lake at this period, but whatever it was, it was a bloody tragedy.

The only reason for owning this album is that you are the kind of loony who must own everything ELP ever did. If you're simply interested in ELP, please avoid this album. You won't enjoy it, because it's awful, and as an ELP fan myself, I'd rather not too many people knew about this one.

Laon

Yes, the cover is cheesy. Yes, the title sucks. Yes, "Love Beach" is a blatant attempt at commercial pop, and it sticks out like a sore thumb in ELP's progressive-rock-meets-classical-music discography.

But I have news for everyone: "Love Beach" actually has good songs on it! Actually, over half of the record's running time contains solid material. It's no "Tarkus" or "Brain Salad Surgery," but it merits a place in any ELP fan's collection.

"All I Want Is You" and "Love Beach" are well-crafted, catchy, up-tempo pop songs - a welcome change of pace from balladeers Greg Lake and Peter Sinfield. "For You," despite its lounge music vibe, sports a cool intro and some nice dynamics. "Canario" is a turbo-charged rendering of Rodrigo's guitar composition in the tradition of ELP's Copland adaptation "Hoedown." "The Gambler" and "Taste of My Love" are admittedly filler, perhaps the only truly bad songs on the record.

"Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman," the twenty-minute epic that spans the erstwhile "side two," is a mixed bag. The lyrics, which describe the story of a World War II soldier, achieve a simplistic yet noble pathos of the "England Expects" variety. The instrumentation is perhaps a bit pedestrian to justify the running time, although the coda "Honourable Company" finds both Emerson and Palmer in majestic form.

"Love Beach" was an easy target for critics who claimed that progressive rock had "jumped the shark" by 1978. But it's far better than its reputation indicates. If you're a diehard ELP fan, give it a chance.

I had heard and read some really nasty stuff about Love Beach. Becoming a fan of ELP in the 80's I wasn't around for those early years and I think I can be a little more objective. I only heard the complete album a few years ago and I can be a bit forgiving about this atypical ELP album.

Love Beach is definately light years away from Tarkus and Brain Salad Surgery but it's still a listenable album for me. the album cover photo does scream out BEE GEES! but I guess that's understandable considering it's 1978 release and recording the album in the Bahamas. The album title is poorly chosen as well. "Canario" might have worked better.

My musical tastes are pretty diverse and I do like pop songs and they do a great job on most of them..Love Beach, The Gambler and For You are pretty good all considering. A Taste Of My Love is rather laughable with it's sexual innuendos.

Canario is a terrific and spirited instrumental and Memoirs Of An Officer And Gentleman is quite good. The band's playing itself is strong and powerful but the material itself is lightweight compared to their epic albums of past. Greg Lake still sings with passion and Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer's playing is still exciting albeit in more concise fashon.

This album was recorded mainly to fulfill their contract with Atlantic and the longtime diehard fans dismiss it. It's certainly not a essential ELP album, but it does show the band in a different light at a time where the musical landscape had changed drastically in the 1970's

Cripes, look at the cover! If that's not indicative of the album's quality, there's only one fact you need to know. The group only released this album because they owed it to their original record label. Still not convinced? Well, there's not much else to say, except that this atrocious record brings me dangerously close to vomiting whenever it plays. Hardcore ELP fans shouldn't even buy this to finish their collection. Stay far away from it. Keep other people away from it. Wear a big sign and stand in front of record stores. Save us all!

1978 - Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, The Clash and, um, er, ELP? Despite years of glowing sales, ELP were at the end of their Atlantic contract, and label chief Ahmet Ehregun demanded a hit from the masters of the long long track. Despite their previous sales, despite their band's reputation, despite everything, the well was dry and Ergun was barking at the door.

In desperation, weariness, and in total disregard for their fans, ELP repaired to Jamaica with Peter Sinfield in tow to crank out their last album. The result is a half-disaster to some, a complete abortion to others.

The first five songs on this album are awful - they sound like fake Rolling Stones songs, the type of thing no one in the band had performed for years, and lyrics are risibly bad.

The classical adaption Canario, however, is a strong piece, showing ELP doing, for better or worse, what they did best, rocking up classic music.

Memiors of an Officer and a Gentleman could not survive in the era in which appeared; too white, too long, too proficient musically. But now, years later, the smoke clears, and we have a final ELP epic that hangs together, has some fine music, and is the quietest music they ever produced. Greg Lake sings well, and Emerson plays with disciple and taste, as does Carl Palmer. While it is neither experimental nor overly original, the piece is still moving and intelligent in places. Compared to the other cuts on LOVE BEACH, it rises to the top of the ELP heap.

How on Earth did these guys get the Bee Gees, of all people, to pose for the cover? Anyway, this album couldn't possibly be as bad as received wisdom has made it. True, it's no BRAIN SALAD SURGERY (to put it charitably) or TARKUS but times had changed after all. What did ELP fans (there were still a few in 1978) expect? That the band could sustain the musical force they commanded in the early days? That disco and punk weren't happening? That somehow they would transform themselves into a progressive Ramones? Think about it - - Magazine, to name just one example, could pull off appealing to prog fans and the punk crowd both. Retro-prog? Prog-punk? Unfortunately for ELP, their own strategy to straddle every style at once attracted no one (at least, no one new) and alienated everyone else, meanwhile rendering themselves sitting ducks for the critics. That they chose to include a side-length 'epic' in 'Memoirs Of An Officer And A Gentleman' is symptomatic of ELP's predicament: it ain't no 'Tarkus' and listening to it, one gets the feeling they knew it. Still it's an enjoyable, if perfunctory, spin. The shorter songs fare a little better, probably precisely because they are short. Things are kind of strange on the production side - - kind of echoey and hazy - - but once you realize that the whole project has the feeling of surrender, even that seems perfectly appropriate. Maybe it's just me, but I really like this album - - as long as I don't look at the ghastly cover. Put it side by side with Bee Gees' SPIRITS HAVING FLOWN and confuse your old prog-minded friends.

This is derided as Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's worst album. From the cheesy, disco cover (with Emerson stuffing his trousers, and Palmer saying in interviews they look like the Bee Gees), the fact that it was a contractual obligation album, and coming after the somewhat disasterous Works tour (they had to jettison the orchestra because of lack of tickets sales), it could have had a dirge atmosphere and truly awful songs. It isn't a masterpiece, but several songs are excellent, and a professionalism holds this album together. It's also far more coherent than its predecessor, Works Vol. 2, which was just a bunch of leftover tracks from sessions dating back to 1973. The first 5 songs have cheesy, smarmy lyrics (especially Taste of my Love), but some are quite catchy musicially (especially the title tune). I'm not supposed to like it, but I do anyway. Canario is a great instrumental, but the best track is the epic Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman. It's a miracle that this song found its way onto the album. The head of Atlantic at the time wanted ELP to do a blatanly commercial album, and the 20 minute Memoirs doesn't fit that category. It's among the greatest of ELP songs, a majestic, moving epic, well written and stunningly performed. To my knowledge, they have never done this song in concert, which is a shame, as it is one of their greatest songs. This album isn't ELP's greatest, not close, but it's not their worst (In the Hot Seat is their worst album, their last studio album). Canario and Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman make this album worth listening too.

ELP are one of my favorite bands, but even I don't have to like this contractual-obligation quickie taped between tanning sessions in the Bahamas. Pete Sinfield's lyrics are good for a laugh, at least, but the biggest one is the front cover photo--did these guys really think they were sex symbols? (It is instructive that Carl Palmer, always the most circumspect member of the group, posed with his shirt buttoned.) It's not all awful--"Canario" is actually one of ELP's more respectful covers of a classical piece--but "Brain Salad Surgery" or "Tarkus" cut it to ribbons.

I have loved all the ELP albums from their debute till this thing. I've tried many times to listen to it and try to grasp what they were trying to do here but to no avail. I bought the album (at a discount store around 1980)and recorded it to, would you believe, 8-track. I tried to listen to it in my car, my home, wherever, but just couldn't tolerate it. I had to go back and listen to Trilogy or Tarkus to still remain loyal to the group. If I ever place it on my still operable turntable to 'test it out' just one more time, just shoot me. What a piece of junk. It only get one star 'cause I could go any lower. Don't waste your money.