WORKS VOL. 1

After a break of 3 years during which Greg Lake pens a famous Christmas record and Keith Emerson hits the charts with ragtime music,ELP return all guns blazing....um sort of.The format of 3 solo sides allows ELP to indulge themselves fully.Keith Emerson's Piano Concerto anyone? No I didn't think so.And then there's Greg Lake's acoustic ballads.Very nice but what the heck are they doing on a group album?? It's up to Carl Palmer to save the day with some impressive jazz funk fusion stuff in cohorts with Joe Walsh among others.The reworking of Tank is preferable to the original IMO as well.Love the big band approach somewhat inpsired by Buddy Rich.The group side (yes is there is one amazingly!) includes the very wonderful 'Pirates' which is the best band plus orchestra track ever (again IMO) and a 9 minute improvised version of their hit record 'Fanfare For The Common Man'.I think the only fair way to rate this album is to take each side individually.So from a prog perspective -Keith Emerson's side (1 star),Greg Lake (2 stars) ,Carl Palmer (4 stars), Group Side (5 stars).That gives an average rating of 3 stars by my reckoning.Seems about right!