WORKS VOL. 2

The second Works album (released eight months after the first one) is really strange. It feels even less like a coherent whole than its predecessor, because Volume 2 is less a real album and more a collection of outtakes. Most of the tracks on this record feel like they could have fit in perfectly on Works, Volume 1 and were even recorded at the same time but didn't make the cut (presumably because they ran out of disc space with that one). Other tracks even hail back to the sessions for Brain Salad Surgery, including a track called? "Brain Salad Surgery". Finally, "Barrelhouse Shakedown" and "I Believe In Father Christmas" had previously been released as solo singles by Keith and Greg, respectively, and appear here without any alterations. For this reason, Works, Volume 2 is often dismissed as a throwaway or stop-gap album, and I too think it's certainly quite pedestrian compared to ELP's earlier work, but much like Volume 1 I see this album mostly as a mixed bag of moments that are bound to bore you and moments that are actually worth your time (many of which even exceed most of Volume 1 in beauty).

This album isn't strictly divided into separate parts for each band member but most of the tracks still feel like they're courtesy of one specific musician rather than the band as a whole. For example: "Watching Over You" and the aforementioned "I Believe In Father Christmas" are clearly Greg's songs: both are relatively straight-forward pop numbers, but they're actually better than what he put on Works, Volume 1: they're less dragged out and they're a lot more sparsely arranged, which actually helps make them seem more authentic (at least in comparison to the bombastic, out-of-place orchestral arrangements which made the banal pop stuff like "Lend Your Love To Me Tonight" seem all the more pathetic). "Watching Over You" is basically just a gentle acoustic guitar ballad; certainly no "From The Beginning", but still good enough and not pretending to be more than what it is.

"Bullfrog" and "Close But Not Touching" were written by Carl and follow the same big band jazz style as on "Food For Your Soul" from the last album. Both take influence from military march tunes, with "Bullfrog" sporting a snare-heavy main theme with a catchy main melody played by Carl himself on the marimba, and "Close But Not Touching" opening and closing with a Yankee Doodle-like flute theme. Carl also hands a solo spot to his fellow band members on both tracks: Greg plays a mad guitar solo on "Close But Not Touching", and on "Bullfrog" Keith plays a synth solo with the same steel drum-like tone as on "Karn Evil 9".

Now, Keith is the only one whose contributions here differ notably from those on the last album: There's no classical music here. Instead, he plays a bunch of cute ragtime tributes on honky-tonk piano with a brass section backing him up, including a cover of Meade Lux Lewis's "Honky Tonk Train Blues" and his own "Barrelhouse Shakedown". Finally, he plays a really nice version of "Show Me The Way To Go Home", another hit song from the 1920s, although Greg manages to steal the show on that one with a lovely vocal performance.

All of the remaining songs do feature the boys working more together as a group, but this time there's not that much to say about them, so it's like a complete reversal of Volume 1. Out of the songs taken from the 1973 sessions, "When The Apple Blossoms Bloom In The Blah Blah Of Your Bleepity Bloop" is a half-cool but ultimately aimless jam, while "Brain Salad Surgery" is pretty funny, though probably a little too inessential to be featured on the album which was named after it. But all of the other tracks are completely forgettable: some generic blues stuff, an orchestral version of "Maple Leaf Rag" (why?)? Let me just end by saying that if you want to see a completely different side of these musicians, you might find this album quite interesting and enjoyable, but if you want to hear more grandiose prog in the vein of "Tarkus" or "Karn Evil 9", don't bother with this album because it doesn't have what you're looking for.