Atlantic SD 2-7000 Double LP Promo White Label. Near Mint (NM)

The album was highly anticipated, as it had been four years since the release of ELP's most successful album, Brain Salad Surgery. However, it was extremely different from the synthesizer-driven music that most fans had expected. The main reason was the constant disagreements about the direction ELP should go. Side 1 of the first disc was the Keith Emerson Side, and was a classical concerto for piano and orchestra. Side 2 was the Greg Lake side, and consisted of acoustic ballads, most of which were written by Lake & Peter Sinfield. The Carl Palmer Side on the second disc was considered at that time to be the best of the three "solo" sides, as it was the closest to prior ELP compositions. Palmer's side include a remake of "Tank" which was on ELP's first album. Another track on Palmer's side which was the rocker "L.A. Nights" featured Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh on lead and slide guitar and scat vocal. Two arrangements of classical pieces figure on the Palmer side: one of Bach's Two-Part Invention in D minor, another, titled 'The enemy god dances with the black spirits', an excerpt of 2nd movement of "The Scythian Suite" by Sergei Prokofiev. Side 2 on the second disc featured the entire band together, and consists of another classical piece re-arranged for rock band, Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, and the long-form song "Pirates".

Because the sound was so different from their past albums, reaction was mixed. Works Volume I attracted new fans to Emerson, Lake and Palmer, but turned off many others.