Yes. I mean, if none of this stuff had ever been released, people would always be wondering what these sessions were like, wondered about the whatmighthavebeens, as we wonder about Howe's day in The Nice or Emerson, Lake & Bruford. So I'm glad that these sessions were released, that they're available for completists like me, but it is for completists only.
Given all that, I'd recommend Black Moon and maybe some of the recent Carl Palmer live albums.
Payne has his own sound: his writing is more... hair metal, I guess? I think Aqua's worth hearing, maybe Slient Nation or Aura, but I think the reunion Asia albums are generally better. YMMV.
Henry
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Least interesting member of the Buggles with least interesting member of ELP, nah.
Now an Emerson / Horn collaboration might have yielded something worth hearing.
^^ I guess we differ then. I'm no particular fan of Palmer but Greg Lake has always struck me as a terrible singer and I can't say his bass playing ever got me excited either.
Further reflections. RE; Black Moon. It's OK...no more, no less. I think Palmer's drum sound is a major drawback. But that trudge through 'Romeo And Juliet' and some of the lyrics in 'Footprints In The Snow' aside, there's nothing too embarrassing. The Downes co-write 'Affairs Of The Heart' isn't anything special and Lake's vocal was a little shocking to me when I first heard it...but Emerson's keyboard fills liven it up a bit.
RE; Payne-Asia. Heard quite a few of the albums, only one I liked was Aura. It's too long but there's some good music there- 'Ready To Go Home' (a cover) and 'Free' in particular. I'm increasingly less fond of Payne's 'grunting' vocal style, though perhaps that's a personal thing. That kind of 'macho' style I hear in Marc Bonilla as well.
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I was being harsh- about half of the album is certainly good (the two instrumentals are more than that), but the other average half kind of drags it down. Agree on the drumming- some very plodding stuff on here, compared with what he played in ELP throughout the 70s. But then what do you do with something like 'Paper Blood', which isn't very interesting rhythmically? (Emerson again livens that one up.)
So, King Crimson without Fripp Personally, I would have been more enamored with Howe in the 80s if he hadn't become so enamored with playing stadium rock power chords and had completely distanced himself from Downes (see the GTR debacle). Same goes for Wetton concerning Downes.
^ No, not very similar, the sound is different, keyboards dominate all over. Lake's solo albums were more guitar oriented
^ I don't remember much of Lake solo stuff, aside of ELP. I have that 2 albums of his, but to say I was hooked must be an exaggeration. Lake/Downes album is surely for completists, as been said. No great revelations there.
Yes, agree about Moore, but expected more from Lake solo stuff. Pretty conventional pop rock..Second album, Manouvres, is a tad better than 1st. But overall, both not very bright, kind of average...Lake/Downes Ride The Tiger are demo versions mostly, of his late ELP stuff.
Well, lyrics don't touch me that deep, through my foreign ears, hahaha..
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