Ultimate Collection in Bloomington, MN

When it comes to greatest-hits packages, compiling tracks within the
prog-art/prog rock
genre is the most thankless. How do you present a fair and balanced overview of a group that specialized in 15-minute epics? You put it on two discs. While noble, the approach misses its mark on
Sanctuary
's sprawling
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
retrospective,
Ultimate Collection
. While by no means bad -- there are still 24 tracks of wicked and sublime pretense;
ELP
has so much material -- and very few singles -- that each one of their fans will find reason to argue for or against the inclusion or exclusion of a specific song(s). Where is
"Trilogy"
? or
"Jeremy Bender"
? Why is the title cut from 1992's exercise in futility,
Black Moon
on here? In the end, these questions don't really matter, as the amount of good material (
"Pirates,"
"Still...You Turn Me On,"
"I Believe in Father Christmas,"
and all 20 minutes of
"Tarkus Medley"
) far outweighs the bad.
stands as one of the better comps of the band, but die-hard fans might as well pick up all of 1996's excellent
Rhino
reissues. ~ James Christopher Monger