Greg Lake left behind a rich musical legacy when he passed away in 2016. As a member of Emerson Lake & Palmer, King Crimson, pre-Crim bands The Shy Limbs and The Shame – not to mention his talents as a solo artist, producer, and composer – he helped define the landscape of progressive rock. A new career-spanning compilation called The Anthology: A Musical Journey will pay tribute to his contributions through the decades. The two-disc set features 33 tracks, including many of Lake’s best-known songs, beloved album cuts, and rarities. There’s the hard-to-find “Love” that Lake recorded with The Shy Limbs, ELP favorites “Take a Pebble,” “‘C’est La Vie.” and “Lucky Man.” His time with King Crimson is represented with “Peace” from In the Wake of Poseidon, “In The Court Of The Crimson King.” recorded live at the Fillmore West, and “21st Century Schizoid Man” as performed solo in 1981. A clutch of ’80s solo material is also included, alongside a collaboration with Geoff Downes and a number of live recordings. Lake’s re-recording of the old ELP favorite “Closer To Believing” – one of his final recordings – is another highlight of the collection.

Manouevres was released in 1983 as the follow-up to Greg Lake's 1981 self-titled debut album. His core group of musicians (Gary Moore, Tristam Margetts, Tommy Eyre, and Ted McKenna) is still present, but Manoeuvres is a different sort of album than the '81 effort. The heavy, gritty, guitar-driven feel of the previous record is not quite as evident and this seems a more restrained album. Many, Greg Lake included, tend to sell this album short and that is a mistake. Perhaps sales were discouraging, but this is a well-crafted, well-performed album on which Lake seems to rely more on melody than he did in 1981. A few of the heavier numbers, such as the title track, are reminiscent of '81, but it is on the ballads that the album goes its own way. Lake shows why, through all of powerful and complex music of the ELP years, it was the ballads which always seemed to fair best commercially.

Greg Lake left behind a rich musical legacy when he passed away in 2016. As a member of Emerson Lake & Palmer, King Crimson, pre-Crim bands The Shy Limbs and The Shame – not to mention his talents as a solo artist, producer, and composer – he helped define the landscape of progressive rock. A new career-spanning compilation called The Anthology: A Musical Journey will pay tribute to his contributions through the decades. It will be released on October 23 through BMG.

There are concessions that must be made on Keith Emerson and Greg Lake’s Live from Manticore Hall, starting with the absence of Carl Palmer - and then the occasional use of loops.
Too, the conversational aspect of the evening certainly works on its first listen, bringing us in with a confidential closeness. (Emerson, in an impish moment, recalls people asking questions about his pre-Emerson Lake and Palmer band: "The Nice what?") But once that context is understood, these lengthy segments quickly become extraneous detours away from what is often a adventurously re-imagined journey through some peak moments for both…

Emerson, Lake & Palmer's most successful and well-realized album (after their first), and their most ambitious as a group, as well as their loudest, Brain Salad Surgery was also the most steeped in electronic sounds of any of their records. The main focus, thanks to the three-part "Karn Evil 9," is sci-fi rock, approached with a volume and vengeance that stretched the art rock audience's tolerance to its outer limit, but also managed to appeal to the metal audience in ways that little of Trilogy did…