Robert Berry and 3.2 "The Rules Have Changed" album review

September 25, 2018 The material contained in this package are the final works, thoughts, and ideas of the late Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake and Palmer and 3) who we lost in 2016, although Keith is not playing on this album unfortunately he is channeled through Robert Berry's keyboard playing throughout all the pieces on this cd. Robert who is playing all the instruments in the material told me he almost didn't finish this project when Keith had passed in 2016 as it was difficult to do, but he soldiered on and completed the project. Berry had told me that Keith had originally done about twenty percent of the keyboard playing before he passed and his estate would not allow Berry to use any of the material he had so he had to replicate all the playing Emerson had done himself again he said luckily he had Keith's tracks to go by to reproduce that exact sound as no one could play like Keith Emerson "Keith Emerson was the Jimi Hendrix of the Keyboards, as he could pick it up and play it behind his back like Hendrix could do with a guitar" quoted Berry. This album's worth of material represents Keith Emerson very well as there are only eight tracks within this album, it's promised not to be a disappointment. Berry was quoted as saying while working on this project wwkd which means what would Keith do during the recording sessions of the music, this album was 30 years this year in the making as the last album released from 3 was in 1988, but we can say this it was well worth the wait. We open with "one By One", starting with a kind of classical piano piece at the beginning but then kicks in to high gear ELP style keyboards if you didn't know any better you would have thought it was an ELP track. "Powerful Man" is what could be a piece that was locked in a time capsule for the simple fact that while listening to it you can actually picture it playing in one of those classic 80s plane flying flicks like a "Top Gun" or "Iron Eagle" I can see it clearly playing out during a scene where there's a team of people working on getting the plane ready for some flight action type of scenario. "The Rules Have Changed", again has the classic stylings of the great classic rock bands like ELP, Yes, or even Queen while listening you can really visualize Freddy Mercury of Queen belting this one out but all in that same breath you hear that fresh sound of today's music through the speakers as well. "Our Bond", I will say that you can clearly hear the different influences in each of these for instance in this this writer hears classic Beatles styling in here more of the "All You Need is Love" or "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" with strings and horns accenting the right places in this particular track. "What You're Dreaming Now" has many influential sounds of Emerson's classic rock friends of his time throughout this album that you can't just pick one song and just say i'm going to play this one and not the rest all of the tracks fit together like a jigsaw puzzle where no piece can be out of place you have to play it from start to finish to get the whole picture, it's not one of those cds where you put it on and go to a specific track this is what you can consider to be something that hasn't been made in a long time and that's a classic concept album, and if you're in to those types of albums you're going to love this, if it's your first time listening to a concept album it might be difficult for your listening pleasures but once you get through it you'll want to hear it again and maybe go and get some of those classic concept albums of the day. The last track entitled "Your Mark On The World" says it all and Keith certainly did that in our musical life, he created a wonderful soundtrack that we will never forget. I think if Keith Emerson is looking down from Rock and Roll Heaven he has to be proud that his good friend Robert Berry finished this amazing project and gave Keith a perfect send off to end his body and legacy of his musical career. Well done Robert.