Consumer Guide Album

Elvis Presley: Our Memories of Elvis Volume 2 [RCA Victor, 1979]
The idea is to remove the goop--strings, horns, choruses--from nondescript '70s album tracks, shuffle 'em up good, and call it "pure Elvis." But though Volume 1 was a bare-faced exploitation, this one happens to work. Maybe someone figured the potential market hated goop of any kind. In any case, the song selection is neat, including "Green Green Grass of Home," "Thinking About You," the lovely "I Can Help," and a previously unreleased "studio jam session" on Dylan's "Don't Think Twice" that is actually too long at 8:36. The mix is weird--I hear imperfectly erased goop ghosts on "Way Down," for instance--but as near as I can tell this is EP's best pop album of the decade. B+