But when it doesn’t, it’s indulgent schlock (think Rick Wakeman), or worse, well-wrought but emotionally vacant showpieces that typify the soulless product of corporate rock. When this strategy works, it makes for a brilliant, intuitive synthesis - and the immediately familiar hits from ELO’s juggernaut years in the mid-’70s bear this out. But what this all amounted to in practice was condensing such ideas as orchestrated rock riffs played on violas and song snippets sewn into extensive suites and presenting them as big, unsubtle hooks. The band’s intention of incorporating ideas from classical music seemed a bit grandiose and hubristic, as well (“my tunes are just like Bach’s!”). The band was a proven hit-maker in England (though mysteriously not in America, despite being the equal of any other British Invasion band), and the record company was perhaps puzzled that the same band members should want to toss away the established name for one rather unwieldy and pretentious. 2: Ticket To The Moon, is a nice companion to other ELO greatest hits packages.ELO was formed in 1972 when the remaining members of the Move - multi-instrumentalist and songwriting genius Roy Wood, drummer Bev Bevan and late arrival Jeff Lynne, who had originally made his name with another English group from Birmingham, the Idle Race - were ready to move on, as it were, to better explore the proggish ideas that were already surfacing on such albums as Shazam! and Looking On. Although it features a few bygone tunes the casual listener might not know that well, The Very Best Of Electric Light Orchestra, Vol. “Latitude 88 North,” “Surrender” and “Destination Unknown,” The three “unreleased” tracks, are pretty harmless. The CD also features liner notes that include Lynne’s commentary on each and every track (as told to band archivist Rob Caiger). For my money though, what makes this compilation worth having is the remastered sound on the classics like on “Do Ya,” with its popping slide guitar, or the lush strings one can now hear perfectly on “Can’t Sure, the strings are at their strongest, but the songwriting is solid and Lynne’s voice sounds good. Lynne seems to have steered the ship back on course for 2001’s Zoom, with songs like “In My Own Time” and “Moment In Paradise,” both of which appear on this disc. When you hear songs from this period next to classics like 1975’s “One Summer Dream,” my favorite song here, you can certainly hear how much the band changed.īut all is not lost. Original ELO drummer Bev Bevan, though credited, hardly plays at all. Unfortunately, the nine songs from that era represent the band’s shift in focus.Īlthough Lynne’s fascination with the Beatles is evident throughout (check out 1983’s “Little Diamonds”), one can hear the group stretching for MTV “cred” with songs like “Secret Messages” and “So Serious.” By the time the band recorded Balance, an album Lynne admits was done for contractual reasons, he and keyboardist Richard Tandy were pretty much running the show. This ‘downsizing’ continued for the band all throughout the MTV-laden days of the 80s. My second ELO show was for the Time tour, when Lynne had his trusty cello players consigned to keyboards. I have seen ELO in concert twice. The first time was their infamous Out Of The Blue tour, complete with laser lights and a spaceship that so mesmerized my teenaged sister I’m not sure she has been right since. Then there’s the songs from the group’s un-celebrated mid-80s period - nine tunes out of the 20 on this disc.
“It’s Over,” “Do Ya,” “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head” and “Last Train To London” were common There was no way you could miss these guys on FM radio back in the day. This 20-song ‘career-spanning’ collection is the companion to 2005’s All Over The World: The Very Best Of Electric Light Orchestra. And like all the preceding Epic/Legacy remasters, this one was compiled and supervised by ELO leader Jeff Lynne.Ī good bunch of these tunes will be familiar, even if you’re not the biggest ELO fan. 2: Ticket To The Moon is the latest in a long line of Electric Light Orchestra compilations. The Very Best Of Electric Light Orchestra, Vol.
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