Album of the Day

Brain Salad Surgery, by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1972): Over on the WV Blogger's Board, I picked Yes over ELP in a "best band" matchup because I think ELP is the most inconsistent of the big 70s prog bands, capable of brilliance and pure crap within the same album (hell, sometimes in the same side!). Brain Salad Surgery is probably their most consistent work and the best (ever though I prefer Trilogy on the whole). Most of the album is devoted to the epic "Karn Evil 9," so big is takes up more than one side of the old LP. The rest of side one is decent enough filler, but not really spectacular. I've never been a huge fan of "Toccata," for example, although it was probably one of the earliest extensive uses of synthesized percussion.