If you have read the previous reviews of the original digital flipbook edition and the first softbound physical re-issue, you know exactly what to expect from the Elvis U.K. team.
Design
The design is exactly the same as the first volume, so you get a text-heavy book with plenty of functional illustrations. It is crammed with functional and detailed background information - in part provided by those who were originally involved, and all cross-referenced with other versions - more than a normal person can absorb. So for me, a few more graphical pages would have made this encyclopedia a little more appealing. I would have loved to see some more original advertisements printed full-page, as this book is a trip down memory lane for a fan like me who grew up in the CD era.
This book is volume 2 in a trilogy that covers the years 1983 up to 2005. In this volume, we get all the CDs released between May 1997 and December 2004.
It starts with page 476, so the index presented in volume 1 remains the starting point for this and the upcoming third volume. Duplication of the index would have been helpful when reading just this volume, but I can follow the author's perspective to present this as a trilogy. It does mean that it isn’t a stand-alone book, you need all volumes to enjoy all the functionality of the original digital flipbook.
Content
Reading the book, it is nice to see that the authors treat these silver discs almost the same as they do vinyl releases. But there are differences. Where vinyl releases with variations in text, design, tax code, or pressings are presented as variations, many CDs with small differences are presented as different releases, with their own place in the Elvis CD catalog. So there is a difference in collecting vinyl and CDs according to these authors. In a way I agree, a first pressing of a vinyl or CD release doesn't feel the same.
A good example is the 'Original Elvis Presley Collection' from 1997 that opens the book. The discs in that 50-CD set were sold as a set, but some titles were sold separately (with their own barcode or catalogue number), while others had the same design but contained more tracks. The 'Loving You' CD in the box had 12 tracks, while a later version with the same design contained 20 tracks. Reading all the investigative work by these two experts on the individual discs in this set, it appears that almost none of the discs was released as originally intended.
Another fun observation that illustrates the eye for detail: the authors spotted a different number of "Elvises" on the '50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong' CD as released in 1997 and in 2013. Reading the book, you will find many more in-depth observations from these two experts.
And while we fans normally mainly focus on the official catalog, the authors also added the official (mechanical rights paid) CDs released in the United Kingdom. I was surprised to see the Follow That Dream releases (the label started in 1999), as they originate from Denmark and were only released through fan clubs. Does that qualify as an official U.K. release?
And if those releases qualify for a place in the book, I did miss the promotional CDs that were kind of a rage among the Nordic fan clubs in the timeframe of this second volume.
Conclusion
The conclusion for this second volume is the same as for volume 1: this is the definitive record - or "ultimate guide" as the authors stated on the cover - on Elvis U.K. CD releases. I would love to read Ernst Jorgensen’s reaction to this compendium of part of his work, I think that John and Gordon may have uncovered more details on his work than he is aware of.
My personal conclusion, leafing through the book and looking at the CD covers, is that apparently, I am an avid (U.K.) CD collector, as I heard myself thinking, "I have that one" or "I must play that one again; it has been years since I took it off the shelf" over and over again. I didn’t have that insight browsing through the original digital edition.
This illustrates the value of the physical product for me; you take in the content much better. So, John and Gordon, thanks for doing a physical edition, it made me look at some of the CDs in my collection again, while learning a lot reading the background of those albums.
When the third volume will be added, this will be one helluva reference!
The book is available online from the authors' webshop for the reasonable price of 50GBP at the >>> ELVIS UK Books webshop.
You can read the reviews of >>> volume 1 and the >>> flipbook edition here.