In brief, the two volumes that comprise Works are flawed documents. After keeping its fans on pins and needles over their next release for four years, they returned as a fractured and unfocused group.
The origins of ELP are strange in themselves. You really have to wonder what would make anybody think the keyboard player of the Nice, the vocalist of King Crimson, and the drummer of Atomic Rooster would play well together. Most supergroups had a lifespan of one album or less, and even Cream was only together for two and a half years. Nevertheless, Keith Emerson knew the Nice weren't going anywhere without a vastly improved rhythm section and vocals, which he was able to accomplish with just two new bandmates, though it also warranted a new name, seeing that higher caliber musicians wouldn't be content to be seen as the replacement crew for Brian Davison and Lee Jackson. To the surprise of many and the horror of a few, ELP became one of the biggest bands of the 1970's. They inspired many artists to "go prog", then by mid-decade served as the example of what to rebel against for the punk movement, which by 1977 was in full blossom.
In 1973, ELP probably took things as far as they could with the release of Brain Salad Surgery, and then a top-billed performance to close the Cal Jam in 1974 in front of a quarter million fans, following a (literally) explosive set by Deep Purple. What could possibly be next?! Well, it turned out the answer was nothing until the release of Works (the first volume, though like World War I, the "volume 1" bit came later).
Works, in spite of the black cover, was kinda-sorta the White Album of ELP, only, unlike the Beatles it was made abundantly clear you were going to be treated to performances by three individuals rather than one group. Furthermore, these three individuals, to varying degrees, had changed substantially since the formation of ELP six years earlier, meaning you weren't going to get songs resembling their pre-ELP output. Emerson, harkening back to the last days of the Nice delivers a full-on concerto for his side, which unfortunately bears a greater resemblance to soundtrack music than a work of classical music. Greg Lake expands on his folk-influenced stuff with five mostly acoustic numbers done in collaboration with lyricist Peter Sinfield. Carl Palmer, closer to Asia's first album than early ELP and Atomic Rooster material, is the most overtly commercial on his side, even employing the probably ridiculously expensive services of Joe Walsh on guitar. Finally you get two precious songs on the last side where it's a band performance. "Fanfare for the Common Man" in its full form is a prog masterpiece, but released about five years too late, while "Pirates" is a dangerous song to listen to while driving because it tends to put me to sleep.
In spite of the fire of "Fanfare" it was clear that ELP wasn't doing so hot in the late-1970's. The rather uninspired and less rigid second volume of Works soon followed, and then Love Beach, an album so bad that I think even the band has dismissed it a contract-fulfillment outing. All would move on to solo albums between 1980 and 1981, with Palmer (and then later Lake) doubling down on the supergroup thing with Asia. ELP, like just about every band, would reunite years later, but tepidly at best. In fact I think ELP has one of the most depressing track records when it comes to reunions, as the old hostilities never really went away. Undoubtedly their work of the early 1970's has a lot going for it, but it seems that they never recovered from the mid-1970's hiatus.
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