3.2 – Third Impression (2021)
Artist: 3.2 (Robert Berry, Keith Emerson)
Album: Third Impression
Genre: Crossover Prog
Label: Frontiers Music
Year Of Release: 2021
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Tracklist:
1. Top of the World (9:00)
2. What Side You’re On (2:51)
3. Black of the Night (6:15)
4. Killer of Hope (3:16)
5. Missing Peace (5:54)
6. A Bond of Union (5:20)
7. The Devil of Liverpool (6:09)
8. Emotional Trigger (4:54)
9. A Fond Farewell (4:27)
10. Never (8:58)
With both Keith Emerson and Greg Lake gone, Robert Berry’s 3.2 is the closest we will ever get to new music from ELP – and serious fans of that famous group are going to love this! Third Impression is the second and final album Berry has made under the moniker of 3.2, and the third album overall (hence the title) including the original 3 album from 1988.
The group 3 was essentially ELP, but with Berry instead of Lake, and with a more streamlined approach fitting to the 80’s. Many years later, not long before Keith Emerson’s death, Emerson and Berry had started working together again, writing songs for what was intended as a late follow-up to To the Power of Three. Sadly, this project was not completed while Emerson was still alive, but amazingly Berry completed and complemented the music they had worked on and this eventually became The Rules Have Changed. That album was released in 2018 – 30 years after To the Power of Three!
That could have been the end of the story, but Berry had one more unreleased song that he and Keith had worked on together. That song now appears on this album together with nine other songs written by Berry alone. I did not expect to ever see another 3.2 album, but Berry has done it again! Like on The Rules Have Changed, Berry sings and plays everything himself, including drums; bass; guitars; and the keyboards, which again sound as if Keith is alive! Berry is multi-talented.
The song co-written with Emerson is Never, which stands up well beside Desde La Vida from To the Power of Three, and Last Ride Into the Sun, a song that was written by Emerson, Berry, and Carl Palmer, but ended up on Berry’s solo album Pilgrimage to a Point. Other strong tracks on Third Impression include opener Top of the World and A Fond Farewell, but there are no weak tracks as such. Emotional Trigger is a jazzy piece that brings to mind something from ELP’s Works Vol. II.
Overall, I enjoy this as much as I did The Rules Have Changed. If you are a fan of ELP and are hungry for more music in the extended family of that band, you cannot go wrong with Third Impression.
Review by SouthSideoftheSky
