Emerson, Lake & Palmer Album: “Works 1 & 2”

The last remasters I have of these albums are on the Victory label. Reading all the Amazon reviews,on all the various ELP remasters, I find it all one big confusing mess. That said,I was reluctant to go for these again. The reason why I went this route was pure economics. One of the Amazon sellers had this for a great price which was better than getting them separate so I went for it. I'm glad I did.

The packaging is really good. The booklet is fantastic, with a detailed essay on how the albums were made and what the group was going through at the time. Very informative. The mastering is by Andy Pearce, who also appears to have done the mastering for most of the Shout Factory reissues (at least the titles that I have). I'll leave that discussion to those more in the know. If the Shout Factory reissues are done by Andy Pearce, then you know the sound quality. Judging by the independant album reviews, these two reissues have been well received. I agree with them. The sound is amazing to these ears. I'm sure there are those who'll disagree.

So the question is, should I get it? Not if you have the separate Shout Factory reissues. If you're looking to upgrade and don't have them yet, try and get this for a great price. Until they remaster these again!

I basically just learned about ELP in late 1974, so that is when I learned about, listened to, and bought, ELP's five earlier albums plus their live album. I was lucky enough to talk a six foot tall blonde beauty, about three years older than me, into taking me to see Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's Works tour which was playing at Cobo Hall in Detroit in 1977. I bought the tickets, and I asked her to take us. I wasn't old enough to drive, but I was gifted enough to persuade with my charms an older high school girl (what she did with me that year, would be considered illegal for her because of our age differences). Anyway, this is how the Works albums play an important role to my early teen-age life.

This collection of Works Volumes One and Two put together as a single 3 CD package with classy artwork of the boys of ELP gracing the cover is very well received by me. I would imagine all three albums would have fit on two CD's, but I wouldn't want to lose the authenticity of having Works: Volume Two as it own CD. All the liner notes and pictures within make this a nice CD package of ELP. I know many of us ELP fans have bought all their CD's over and over again (from Atlantic, to Victory, to Rhino, to Shout Records), they continue to want to re-release what may be an even tighter master of the original recordings. I don't know how much better these recording are from the Short Factory releases, but I bought this to replace my Rhino release of Volume One, and my Victory release of Volume Two. I'm pleased with this purchase, so I doubt that I will ever buy them again.

Please, not again. This is satisfactory for me. Please, no more promises of an "all new remastered version" of these ELP CD's. Replacing CD's that I already have is an expensive habit. I'm done, OK?

This is a great compilation. Anyone who has gone through trying to buy CD releases of any Emerson Lake and Palmer material knows how hard it is to find the 'definitive' version of each album. Every album seems to have 20 different releases by 20 different record labels, and each one of them has their own individual flaws. Very frustrating!

Well not this! The remastering of both of these albums sound great, and what's more, you get both the Works 1 and Works 2 albums in one convenient package!

As for the albums themselves, they are not even close to my favourite ELP releases (their first four albums are much, much better). But I wasn't writing this review to rate the album; but rather to review this particular collection (based on the sound quality and value, which are both excellent).

The only downside is the packaging: it seemed excellent, until I realized that disc 3 (aka Works 2) is hidden away in in one of the paper flaps, unlike discs 1 and 2, which are in two cd trays. Very strange... But not enough to drop my rating.