ELO [Greatest Hits]I bought this in 2001, based on my love for this group in the mid seventies, i enjoyed a lot of their chart hits, and they had the knack of hitting a melodious nerve almost every time, and the breadth of their invention was shown by the very varied hits they had, each song had a tendency to not sound like the one before, also they were developing into an 'anthem' sounding unit, and the final song on this album 'Mr Blue Sky' really hits that mark, i got into ELO when i heard 'Showdown' on the radio in 1973, i even bought the vinyl single!.
The Electric Light Orchestra [or what i and many others always referred to it as, was just plain ELO], was the brainchild of Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne, created in 1970, less than a year after The Beatles had split, as they said, they took Rock 'where The Beatles had left off ', but almost as soon as they formed, Roy Wood quit the Band during the recording of their second album, the driving force of the Band was Roy Wood, so when he left Jeff Lynne stepped up to the plate and took the reins, Roy Wood went on to form Wizzard, and in my mind they produced better quality music, though they were bereft of any quantity, ELO had both, this disc is their earlier Greatest Hits album, and only has ten tracks and 45 minutes of music, they would go on to produce other greatest hits packages with more tracks and music on each, but almost without exception, all their very best stuff only needs a modest single disc, the album cover is of a medal, with of course their famous logo, very nicely done, no usual Band photo.
Listening to this threw me back in time to the days i bought vinyl 45's, and on this listen i really enjoyed tracks 5-6 & 11, and here's a little synopsis of each,
5 Turn To Stone - This has an irresistible beat in the verses, i don't know what the time signature is, but the keyboardist almost plays against the beat, or on the offbeat, or whatever it is, it's delicious, it creates a real rhythm.
6 Rockaria - A fantastic idea, Jeff Lynne shows his probable Classical credentials, the whole idea of ELO [at least initially i guess] was to fuse Rock and Classical music, using a small electrified chamber orchestra, the song is about an Opera singer, and it starts off with the Soprano singing [oops! is great], but soon turns into Rock, nice an intense, but the chorus is so infectious, 'she loves the way Puccini lays down a tune' is just perfectly phrased with the right amount of fun, plus i love the way Lynne elongates 'roo-oom' at the end [i guess so he can rhyme tune [toon] and room], and it's great that the opening Soprano returns in her aria again [1:14-1:27], the second time the chorus comes around, the first half is just with percussion and background humming, very effective, so when Lynne sings of Puccini it's all the more sweet, at the end Lynne has an intensity of lyrics, and the song ends on a nice finality rather than fade.
11 Mr Blue Sky - The intro is fantastic, a certain stamping rhythm, which continues throughout the song, like i said before, there's a certain anthem-ness to it, the chorus is nice and complex vocally, using different backing singers, it's a real sunshine song, again Lynne employs a Classical chorus of singers [3:18-3:49], nicely terraced, it really develops a symphonic conception, and the coda / piano are perfect, with strings on the outro, a real complex song that seems to have everything, only topped in this regard by Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
5 Turn To Stone - This has an irresistible beat in the verses, i don't know what the time signature is, but the keyboardist almost plays against the beat, or on the offbeat, or whatever it is, it's delicious, it creates a real rhythm.
6 Rockaria - A fantastic idea, Jeff Lynne shows his probable Classical credentials, the whole idea of ELO [at least initially i guess] was to fuse Rock and Classical music, using a small electrified chamber orchestra, the song is about an Opera singer, and it starts off with the Soprano singing [oops! is great], but soon turns into Rock, nice an intense, but the chorus is so infectious, 'she loves the way Puccini lays down a tune' is just perfectly phrased with the right amount of fun, plus i love the way Lynne elongates 'roo-oom' at the end [i guess so he can rhyme tune [toon] and room], and it's great that the opening Soprano returns in her aria again [1:14-1:27], the second time the chorus comes around, the first half is just with percussion and background humming, very effective, so when Lynne sings of Puccini it's all the more sweet, at the end Lynne has an intensity of lyrics, and the song ends on a nice finality rather than fade.
11 Mr Blue Sky - The intro is fantastic, a certain stamping rhythm, which continues throughout the song, like i said before, there's a certain anthem-ness to it, the chorus is nice and complex vocally, using different backing singers, it's a real sunshine song, again Lynne employs a Classical chorus of singers [3:18-3:49], nicely terraced, it really develops a symphonic conception, and the coda / piano are perfect, with strings on the outro, a real complex song that seems to have everything, only topped in this regard by Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
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