Love Beach is the seventh studio album by English progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in 1978. It was the band's final album of original material until Black Moon (1992) and was produced to satisfy contractual obligations with the group's record company. It was a critical and commercial disappointment, charting at #55 on the Billboard 200, although it did eventually go gold.[1]
Original pressings of Love Beach carried no producer's credit, but production and mixing of the album were largely carried out by Keith Emerson following contentious recording sessions in the Bahamas. According to Emerson, "everybody but me wanted to get the hell out of Nassau ... in the end I stuck the whole album together ... and sent it off to Atlantic".[2][3]
Reception
Critical appraisal of the album is negative; some reviewers consider it the nadir of ELP's 1970s output, while others refer to the continued popularity of some songs. Writing in Rolling Stone magazine at the time of the album's release, reviewer Michael Bloom said that "Love Beach isn't simply bad, it's downright pathetic. Stale and full of ennui, this album makes washing the dishes seem a more creative act by comparison".[4]
