THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION

What can I say ? This compilation includes all the best of this band. It also include some real turkeys too. That Christmas song, for example. But most of the tracks are stunning. Really stunning. 4.5 stars for the music.

Still, I am not that great fan of compilation albums. And Emerson, Lake & Palmer has released their fair share of compilation albums. All of them are cheap rip-offs, with one exception: This album. The booklet are good too. It tells the story of this band. But I would still recommend Keith Emerson's brilliant memoirs "Pictures of an Exhibitionist" instead of this booklet. That book and the four first studio albums + the three first live album Wight, Pictures and Welcome To The Show is the ones all ELP fans should have. One good reason for this is that all the four first albums is entities on their own which should not be broken up into compilation albums. 4.5 stars for the music, 3 stars for the idea.

3.75 stars