Emerson, Lake & Palmer Trilogy Numbered Limited Edition Hybrid Stereo SACD (Use code: FREESHIPPING at Checkout Two Orders or More UK Only

There's a reason Greg Lake deemed Trilogy "such an accurate record" when looking back at it decades later. Emerson, Lake & Palmer's third studio album teems with exacting arrangements, copious overdubs, and multi-hued colors that showcase the band's willingness to experiment and desire to put everything in its proper place without becoming too self-serious. Expanding by distilling the ferocious power of its debut and epic leanings of the preceding Tarkus into a more accessible whole, Trilogy stands as the most representative example of the ensemble's trademark styles.

Mastered at MoFi's California studio and housed in a mini-LP-type gatefold sleeve, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition hybrid SACD of Trilogy presents the gold-certified effort in audiophile sound. Clear, direct, dynamic, and balanced, it brings to fore the visionary depth and virtuosic musicianship on display. Prized characteristics — textures, tones, nuances, effects, open spaces — that go hand-in-hand with the trio's songs and interplay are conveyed amid broad soundstages and in specific detail.

Newly unveiled degrees of separation, imaging, and timing help make the compositions come across with involving presence and realism. Such sonic signposts extend to the subtle shifts in Lake's voice on the opening cut, the mistake that prompts Carl Palmer to audibly curse at the beginning of "The Sheriff," and the thrilling cosmic properties of the Moog synthesizers Keith Emerson employs throughout the record.

Abandoning the conceptual nature of its two immediate predecessors, the 1972 work contains familiar threads that distinguish it as an album only ELP could make. The most obvious examples are the compositions. No other band at the time wove classical, rock, jazz, and even proto-metal themes in the manner of ELP. And no collective possessed the equivalent to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's individual technique and symmetrical chemistry.