WORKS VOL. 2

This album is in no way bad. it is a series of outakes and singles that is a must for any fan. When one thinks of the posthumous albums of Led Zeppelin, Coda, and the recent Steely Dan, Everything Must Go, this slbum is quite a strong effort. it was released in the middle of the middle of the 1977-78 tour and for all intents was to be the band's final effort togeter, at least for a while. Contract obligations sent them back into the studio for 1978s Love Beach that Emerson even apologized for in Musician Magazine.

there is notreally a weak track on the album and most of the trackes were penned elsewhere. Tiger In A Spotlight was na attempt at a single. It is a rock and roll number though toned down from the whirling, Are You Ready Eddy? this was the age of punk afterall; rock and roll was nostalgic and sentimentalized. When The Apple Blossoms Bloom In The Windmills of Your Mind I'll Be Your Valentine is a short tune with a long name taht could be more interesting if perfromed with aquartet as the opening theme is a call and repsonse. The highlight of the album are the two Lake numbers Watching Over You and I Believe In Father Christmas, with the Prokofiev theme. ELP never did anything that was so poor that it deserved less thatn two stars but here I will rate three because of the superb musicianship and variety of the tracks.