THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION

For the first of the 2 discs on this 3 disc set its pretty much a mish mash of ELP tracks from all different eras (but with very little attention paid to the running order) managing to highlight the best as well as some lows (2 tracks from Love Beach??).What makes this set worth going for though is the bonus disc. What you get here is the re-mixed Karn Evil 9 that was originally included on the live triple set (Welcome Back My Friends...) .Here the sound is far better and clearer with a more dynamic feel altogether.The same treatment is given to Hoedown,Still You Turn Me On and Lucky Man from that concert. However there is a mistake with the packaging as not all the tracks are from this one concert. Fanfare For The Common Man was, as any ELP fan knows, recorded and released in 1977. This live version was taken from the second half of the Works tour probably in early 1978.

Overall with the live version of Karn Evil 9 (in its entirety) on the bonus disc its worth 4 stars (would be scraping only 3 without)