This American project features Roby Deaton on keyboards and Craig LeMay on drums & percussion.

As a rule, I tend not to like retro (or, indeed, tribute) artists. Quite frankly, if I want to hear Genesis playing, for example, The Lamb, then I will get out the original and hear it played by the original masters. Duplication is never as good as its master copy, and I am afraid that this is the main issue I have with this album. Actually, what makes it even more trying is that I was never a huge fan of the clear inspiration behind this project in the first place, namely three overblown chaps by the name of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer.

This album, with its main theme of the “elements”, was an opportunity to create something interesting and different. Instead, in the main, what we have throughout is mainly “by numbers” ELP.

Now, to illustrate this, the case for the prosecution rests upon Air. This is a wonderful track. We have a baby crying at the start with its first breath on this wonderful world of ours, and the whole piece is very pastoral with a nice addition of violin by Liza Evans – this is about as good a folk track I have heard this year and an indicator of just what this project could have been. Further, Dragonfly is a really nice piano piece, very well executed and genuinely engaging.

Further, A Different Place In Time has some really nice keys and piano, with a mournful guitar and a delicate vocal before it progresses into a more traditional rock track which is nowhere as interesting as what preceded it. Having said that, there are some pretty good drum bursts by LeMay, who is definitely talented.

The musical performance here is never anything short of very good. The duo and guests are clearly very accomplished musicians, although I have, after listening to this album a few times now, become extraordinarily annoyed at just what The Great Awakening reminds me of. I have woken up in the middle of the bloody night thinking about this, and I still don’t know. Oh well, it will come to me eventually, no doubt.

Elsewhere, it is all pretty familiar and unimaginative, I am afraid. The Nightmare is a pacey rocker featuring a classy guitar solo with keys which sounds like any AOR track from the ‘80’s which featured ad nauseum on MTV back in the day. Exordium (The Hunt/The Chase) has a nice guitar burst, but is very derivative, excepting with a couple of minutes to play, a guitar loop with some stirring percussion, reminiscent of Collins in his pomp, and keys provide a contrast, but only lasts a minute and a half.

The Five Elements Suite itself features an Overture which is pretty subdued to begin with before morphing into a “parp parp” feature a la Emerson. Fire has a thoughtful start before the now familiar Emerson inspired keys kick in, and by Water, I have started to lose interest, really. The riffs are extremely standard with overlaid keys, and Earth following the inspired Air takes us back into that familiar territory.

As In say on all my reviews, I do not particularly like being negative, and there are some really good elements in this very well performed and produced album. However, it is not for me. To really attract my interest and my money, an album needs to offer something new and refreshing, and there is too little of that here, I am afraid. The bulk of it will take you back to those heady days of monster touring trucks and overblown compositions, and if that is what floats your boat, well this is the ideal album for you. It is not, though, I am afraid, for me.