Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Black Moon

The comeback album...

We left Emerson, Lake & Palmer in 1978, when they disbanded after "Love Beach".

Throughout the '80s, the three often collaborated with each other, but unfortunate coincidences prevented the trio from reforming.
For example, in 1982, John Wetton temporarily left Asia, and Palmer called Lake to finish the "Alpha" tour (we can even notice how some songs, particularly The Heat Goes On, Eye To Eye, and The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, sound better with Lake on vocals).
Four years later, in 1986, Emerson and Lake were really intent on getting the band back together, but Palmer was still under contract with Asia. The keyboardist then called his friend Cozy Powell, a well-appreciated drummer in the metal scene, as a replacement. The excellent LP Emerson, Lake & Powell hit the stores, a record that partially drew from the group's traditional sound, yet at the same time simplified and reduced it to the form of traditional songs (so much so that the hit Touch & Go quickly climbed the charts of the era).
Finally, the three tried again in '88, but this time Lake was unavailable, being engaged in the project (still unreleased today) Ride The Tiger with Geoff Downes and former King Crimson drummer Michael Giles. Emerson and Palmer then contacted the young and unknown American singer Robert Berry. The group was named Three and released a single album, "To The Power Of Three", balancing between pop and catchy AOR.

By 1992, the timing was right, and the record company Victory offered a contract to the original three members to compose the soundtrack for a film (a film which, incidentally, would never be produced): thus begins the story of "Black Moon", the reunion album.

Abandoning the long suites of the '70s, the trio preferred to reconnect to the path started six years earlier with Emerson, Lake & Powell...

The opening is entrusted to the title track Black Moon. It is a very powerful piece, despite its very straightforward rhythm. The decidedly dark atmospheres are ideal for talking, albeit rather cryptically, about the Gulf War. Particularly interesting is the instrumental coda that skillfully mixes rock and classical melodies (the typical hallmark of EL&P). The following, much more pop-oriented, Paper Blood (here the theme is greed, so much so that the chorus quite crudely and piercingly states, "This is the power of money, bloody paper") sees Lake using the harmonica and Emerson playing, in addition to keyboards, synth-bass. It is also one of the rare cases where the group uses a choir to enhance the vocal parts.
The third track comes directly from the Ride The Tiger sessions: Lake, in agreement with Geoff Downes, re-records with Emerson and Palmer the splendid semi-acoustic ballad Affairs Of The Heart. The acoustic guitar and smooth keyboard touches make it truly outstanding... (on the other hand, Downes reprises Love Under Fire for "Aqua", an album that, in the same '92, marks the resurrection of Asia).
The extraordinary Romeo & Juliet is a refined yet powerful adaptation of Prokofiev, where Emerson's keyboards reconnect the path of the "new" EL&P with those historical ones from the '70s (however, this song, under the title Montagues & Capulets, already existed on a solo Emerson album). Following this is the excellent Farewell To Arms which reuses, in a modern way, the structure that made Lucky Man famous in 1970: soft and hushed atmospheres that lead to a finale where the Moog prevails.

The midpoint of the album is inaugurated in the best way by Changing States. The song represents a marked improvement over the original Another Frontier present on the same LP as Montagues & Capulets. The initial atmospheric keyboards introduce us to a melody that seems like a medieval dance... all culminating in a crescendo finale. Burning Bridges, a track written by Henry Mancina (the album’s producer and a longtime fan of the trio) presents itself as a classy pop piece where melody and virtuosity intertwine skillfully.
With Close To Home, Emerson gifts us with another gem: a purely piano instrumental that truly touches the heart. It's a real shame this piece was rarely played live... its interpretation at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles (available only on bootleg) was masterly. The penultimate track of the album, Better Days, is perhaps the only truly negligible episode: it is a banal pop song with a straightforward rhythm and lacking punch.
The group more than redeems itself at the close with Footprints In The Snow, a ballad in pure Lake style, closely resembling the previous Affairs Of The Heart: soft acoustic guitar melody and just a couple of keyboard notes serve as a perfect closure.

In conclusion, I feel compelled to give a decidedly positive judgment to this album, despite two evident flaws: the first is Lake’s voice, which has clearly worsened over the years (although the excellent production manages to not make this problem too glaring), the other is Palmer's inexplicable decision to replace all his instrumentation with drum machines and digital drums, making the sound decidedly flatter.
I recommend this album to those approaching this group for the first time, thus beginning a softer approach... after absorbing "Black Moon", one can then proceed much more calmly to the masterpieces that made EL&P great...

Enjoy listening.