The Nice – America

These labels aren't lilac, they look very much like the white labels on the version I have.

OK, so the A-Side is a totally Niceified cover of Leonard Bernstein's "America" from West Side Story. It sounds a lot like a prototypical Emerson, Lake & Palmer, which really isn't surprising given this was Keith Emerson's previous group. This was an instrumental song so you for those who can't stand Lee Jackson's singing, can breathe a sigh of relief here, and it's certainly one of the band's big highlights too.

The B-Side, "Diamond Hard Blue Apples of the Moon" is a real baffler to me. Not the music here, as it's much more in the pop psychedelic style. What baffles me is the presence of the Mellotron. Emerson has been very open about his dislike for the Mellotron, and whatever Mellotron sightings seen with ELP, it was with Greg Lake (there is photographic proof), and not Emerson (apparently some 1972 live performance of "Abbadon's Bolero" had Lake using the Mellotron, but nothing solid to confirm). But there's no mistaking the Mellotron on "Diamond Hard Blue Apples". For all I know Emerson didn't play it, but some hired studio hand, but there isn't a shred of evidence for that. This is one of the great mysteries. Right there with Tony Kaye and Badger's One Live Badger, and Vangelis with Aphrodite's Child's End of the World, both albums with its fair share of Mellotron played by keyboardists who had an open dislike for the Mellotron.