Pictures At An Exhibition

I can honestly say that this a terrible band with crap music. I think this was the second time an album of theirs popped up in this challenge. I hope we're done because this was dreadful.

Interessant project, maar niet per se om aan te horen. Orgeltje helpt ook niet.

Prog is not my thing. Have tried and tried to no avail.

Did not like all the synthesizer & endless instrumentals.

Couldn't get past The Gnome. Sorry.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer's album "Pictures At an Exhibition" provides a distinctive journey through the realms of prog-rock, a genre that I openly admit not enjoying one bit. "Promenade (Pt. 1)" kicks off the album with a pompous organ showcase, creating an ambiance reminiscent of entering a grand cathedral. "The Gnome" follows, conjuring images of a Giallo film or a scene from Doctor Who, with its organ and guitar dueling before giving way to Emerson's synthesiser-driven melody. While the album serves as a showcase for the band's musical prowess, it veers into tedious territory for me. "Promenade (Pt. 2)" offers a variation on its predecessor, featuring Lake's Renaissance-esque vocals. "The Sage" introduces keyboard pyrotechnics and delicate guitar, resembling Middle Earth dinner theatre music that, for me, becomes nearly unbearable. Despite the applause-worthy moments in "The Old Castle," the overall sentiment toward the album remains lukewarm, with "Blues Variation" showcasing Lake's virtuosity but lacking soul. While acknowledging Emerson's synthesiser artistry and Palmer's drumming prowess, the overall verdict stands: ELP's "Pictures At an Exhibition" may impress some with its technicality, but its distinctive brand of prog-rock fails to resonate universally, and I can't help but appreciate the lack of imitators in their wake.

Horrible.

Ugh

1. promenade - 0 2. the gnome - 0 3. promenade - 0 4. the zage - 1 5. the old caztle - 0 6. bluez variation - 0 7. promenade - 0

One thing's for sure, those synth/organ sounds have not aged very well!  Apart from that, the idea of adapting a classical masterpiece was great on paper, but the overall result is awkward at best. ELP are the caricature of a prog-rock act. All the clichés about this genre you can think of (very cheesy sound palettes, vituosisitic mania that has no real artistic point, hermetic lengthy interludes, hackneyed faux-jazz overtones, misplaced intellectual pretensions...), they fit right with it. I wonder if you would have had the same clichés about grindcore if Napalm Death had adapted Ravel's "Bolero", or the ones of Country and Western if Dolly Parton had adapted Bizet's "Carmen". I have a sneaking suspicion that from the vantage point of 2023, the results of those imaginary adaptations would still be more listenable than what ELP had attempted with today's record. But sadly, we'll never know. 1/5 for the purposes of this list of "essential" albums, which translates to a 6/10 grade for more general purposes (5 + 1). Number of albums left to review: less than 400 (I've temporarily lost count here) Number of albums I'll include in my own list: half so far, approximately Number of albums I *might*  include: a quarter, approximately. Number of albums I'll never include: another quarter (including this one, many other albums are more important to me).

Emerson, Lake & Palmer seem intent on showing us that their musical education has been worth it. "Look at the theory we've learnt! Look at the composers we've studied! Look at the techniques we've mastered!" But for all their knowledge and prowess, in Pictures At An Exhibition they fail to imbue their music with any humanity or human experience. The whole listening experience feels akin to marking the English homework handed in by a precocious kid who lacks an interior landscape. An utterly thankless task.

Confusing and not very interesting to me

Too experimental for me

Just….miserable listen. I hate whatever that sound is, synthesizer? Kill me.

I can enjoy non-traditional types of music. I like a lot of abrasive punk, noisy kraut-rock or glitchy electronic music that gets low ratings on this site. But this is terrible masturbatory noodling.

Nope

Just plain shit!

nah

It's times like these I wonder why I agreed to participate in this challenge. Thankfully, I'm limiting my own misery by simply turning off the shittest stuff early doors, I make no secret of that. Today, I was taken into a funeral service in the opening song of the album, before being taken to Playstation 1 space. More annoying than the songs was the location of filming. The crowd go wild in the opener, but you're truly left thinking 'what the fuck was the crowd meant to do while listening to this bollocks?' as the rest of the tunes begin to play out. But if there are any mutants that are going to lap this up, of course it is going to be Toon mutants. Shite.

stop pratting about and play some tunes

Weird live prog can fuck right off.

Gøy med prog, men livealbum

1/5. I’m a huge fan of whomever sings within the group as they have the perfect mysterious, tale-telling voice, but the whole album just is a modge podge of overused synthesizer. I could not imagine paying money to go to their concert to hear 36 minutes of that.

Its just not my thing. bye bye rock opera 70's style. but i I want to blame you, and british stuff like this, for spawning Andrew Lloyd Weber .

Prog rock has never been my forte, honestly it bores the hell out of me. This album is no different, it’s so bloated and banal. I’m scratching my head wondering how this went to number 10 on the Billboard charts, it is neither critically or commercially appealing. It’s basically just something you’d find in the record store junk bin. Their attempt at transferring classical to rock is so pretentious, they even try to make this grittier than it never could hope to be by inserting gravelly shouts now and then. The last track Nutrocker is an embarrassing kitschy cover with an even more embarrassing title. Certainly the nadir of prog.

Experimenty mám ráda, ale tohle mi nějak vůbec nesedlo. Je to zážitek si to jednou poslechnout, ale jednou fakt stačí. Není tu nic, co bych si poslechla znovu. Je to takový funky goofy rockový jazz, chaos, umění pro umění. Nevidím za tím žádný jiný smysl, což je v pořádku, ale moc mi to k zamyšlení nedalo. Zdálo se mi to dost vyprázdněné, ani žádný určitý pocit to ve mně nevyvolalo. Nic mi to neříká, nekomunikuje to se mnou. Název alba „Pictures At An Exhibition“ mi dává nápad, že každá skladba má reprezentovat obraz, který muzikanti viděli v galerii. Pokud je však toto, jak se cítí lidé, když vnímají umění, divím se, proč by vůbec do galerií chodili. Nejlepší písničky: nic Nejhorší písničky: vše Hodnocení: 2/10 (nesedlo mi to, nic mi to neříká, otravné po nějaké době)

Awful!

Ugh. Two live albums in a row?

Pictures would have been worse with the doppelganger tracks actual doppelgangers. And the audience reaction peeking through was hilarious. Chalk both up to prog wankery, which I retain a soft spot for. With 1001 spots on a list, though, consider that there are plenty of classical recordings which involve zero seventies guitar solos. Unnecessary if mercifully short.

yeah, I didn't get laid in high school either

So at two hours and 9 minutes, my first thought was fuck that. So I looked at apple's essential albums instead (of which this isn't one) and opted to listen to brain salad surgery, it was halfway through the second song that I thought, jeez how long is this, and at an hour and 57 I thought, fuck that. So I looked at the length of the other two and trilogy was a mere 40 minutes, so I listened to that instead. So I started to enjoy 'from the beginning' and I wondered if that was on this leviathan of an album, and saw it wasn't. But I did see that there are alternative versions of this album and bugger me, the non deluxe version is only like 38 minutes, this likely could've been over if the link had gone to that one! So I started at the beginning again, listening to this actual album (the short one). I didn't enjoy it. The last track 'nutrocker' was dreadful. 1 star.

Boring

АЛЁША ПОПВОЧИЧ ВВ

noodly prog music at its stereotypical height. only resembles the piece presented occasionally. Also, an awful recording.

I read the wiki description as the first few seconds of pipe organ played and thought, "fuck me, this is going to be a train wreck."... And it was. IDK how I managed to finish this. I guess I got sucked into my morning emails enough that I just tuned it out. God I hate early 70s prog rock. It's just terrible.

Nope really didn’t enjoy this one, don’t need to hear a shitty keyboard version of classical songs. Gave me a headache. Trying to think of reasons for this needing to be on the list to avoid giving it 1 star. Some folk must like it but I really didn’t.

Nada llamativo, sin contexto podría ser cualquier persona tocando instrumentos, sobre todo la canción navideña, y nunca sabria que está considerado uno se los álbumes "a escuchar"

Clearly I’m missing a lot on the way of background and/or drugs here. It sounded like unremarkable barely audible wanking on stage, rather than something ground breaking.

Surprisingly boring. The audience must have been on reality altering substances to enjoy that show. They really seem to enjoy it.

It's a hodgepodge of styles, it's bombastic, it's live, and I don't like it.

This shit is ass. Terrible

Look, this album is unique in that you have very talented musicians making amelodic music. There is absolutely no instance that I will want to hear this for melody, vocals, story or emotion. “The Curse” is phenomenonally bad. Other than my bowels, this album moved nothing in me.

Läste att Modest inspirerades av sin vän målaren och arkitekten Viktor Hartmanns tavlor. Han dog året innan M skrev verket, i artärbråck. Och det var ju ordet jag letade efter. Artärbråck. Borde ha varit titeln på plattan. Motsatsen till Miles Davis ”Sketches of Spain”.

I did not enjoy this. It was hard to follow. I understand they were on the forefront of progrock, but this had way too many distorted elements of jazz, classical and rock. It all sounds like everyone in the group is playing a different song at the same time. Not my bag. Musicianship they're off the charts. It's all too flamboyant and egotistical.

This album made me want to never listen to music again. Even a song with a punny name Nutrocker did not change my opinion.

ELP överträffar alla sina album genom att inte enbart suga men även blåsa...

Ok I tried I really did. I lasted 3 songs and then went 'you know what why don't I actually listen to the original' . Mussorgsky's piece in Ravel's orchestration is a minor classic and very listenable. When replaced by clod-eared synths, bass and drums it's about as listenable to as Concerto for Group and Orchestra. For Mussorgsky (in a recent Wiener Phil/Dudamel version) 3 stars. For ELP -3. This was why punk had to happen.

I guess this is like if genesis wanted to be a cross of the flaming lips and the doors but more leaning doors. I don’t know. not for me.

Absolute garbage

Try as I might, I just can't get into prog. So ponderous and out of my wavelength.

Had this playing while I was in and out of the room. At times it sounded like someone practicing synthesiser / keyboards. Indulgent and uninspiring. If this is them ‘live’ I’d hate to hear them not live. Not for me.

"Pictures at an Exhibition is a live album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in November 1971 on Island Records." That's me done, then. I parade my musical snobbery with pride. I've worked hard to refine my exquisite tastes. This shit is beneath me. DNL.

this has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. i'm afraid of what it will do to my Spotify algorithm. 0 stars if i could, 1 will have to suffice

Every time I thought it was going to get pretty decent they ruined it with a bunch of random noise.

This was eh.. not enjoyable.

Was live

0,5/5 Best song: konnte die nicht unterscheiden also FR garnicht mein Ding

This experimental album is mostly noise except for the happy encore song at the end

No

Какой-то унылый дроч на классику. Но для 1971 звучит очень смело.

I can understand why it’s on this list but it’s so hard for me to enjoy a live album. Especially this one that seems like it’s more impress in person. As a recording it just felt like a rock rendition of classics music which isn’t something I particularly would listen to. This may be impressive but it’s not for me. 2.3/10

Las jullie reviews voordat ik goed en wel begon aan deze plaat en de moed zakte me al in de schoenen. Afgehaakt voor het 2e nummer halverwege was.

Bah, ben echt niet vies van een potje prog maar dit gaat echt te ver.

De tering..... wie gaat er nou ooit eens lekker voor zitten om dit te beluisteren? Om een zenuwinzinking van te krijgen. 😫

Keyboard noodling

boring, progrockers wanking over a classical piece

I never heard/listened to this when it came out I wish I would have kept that streak going. Sucks!!!!!!

Deeply fucking grim, and I'm someone who gives *hobbit prog* a pass.

wtf

24th February 2022 Listened throughout the day while working from home, taking the car for a service etc. chilled in the evening and watched edge of war. Russia invades Ukraine. Not for me. Never understood prog rock and don’t think I ever will!

No. Just No.

Appreciate the effort that probably went into this but my god this is a terrible listen. Amazing if you like pipe organs I guess.

Not into it

Simply terrible, it'd be awful even if it wasn't live.

Not for me. Boring.

Awful, insufferable.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a bit of weird but this album is bad. Prog rock is iconic but this is nonsense from start to finish. Only the live version was available on Spotify and if I paid money to listen to that I’d be livid. This is the first record I’m actually startled has made it to this list. I knew the name of the band and I was excited to listed to them but this was genuinely nonsensical.

Not for me

What was this - it sounded like my high school's band. And this was a live album with people cheering, WTF!!!!!

*classic music and rock *all over the place

Didn't really get this, is it prog Rock versions of a certain composer's (Mussorgsky?) work. I didn't enjoy anyway.

This album was a war crime

What the heck was that? Somewhat self-indulgent. I think I'd have been quite bored sitting through it. Don't get it at all.

Got to be honest I didn't get through this one. Really not a fan

Absolute rubbish, I couldn't get through it. I don't know why this is on the list

Just mindless singing (and it's not even good singing) but mostly jamming. Has early electric piano. All songs blend from one into another so who can tell anything apart. 1/10.

Nah. Would have been fun if I’m ripped up on something illegal I’m sure.

pure unadulterated wankery

Pretentious prog rock bullshit. Do not like.

Kinda cool to make a rock show out of Pictures at an Exhibition but didn't work for me.