Electric Light Orchestra

Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra (2012)

 
  
  1. Mr. Blue Sky
  2. Evil Woman
  3. Strange Magic
  4. Don't Bring Me Down
  5. Turn To Stone
  6. Showdown
  7. Telephone Line
  8. Livin' Thing
  9. Do Ya
  10.Cant Get It Out of My Head
  11.10538 Overture
  12.Point of No Return
  

  
  

By now, Electric Light Orchestra has joined the ranks of those legacy acts whose discography is outnumbered only by the compilations intended to celebrate it. One might be forgiven for assuming that a new “greatest hits” package appears every few years simply to fill space on supermarket shelves and line the pockets of a record label well-acquainted with diminishing returns. ELO, more than most, has become something of a poster child for this sort of posthumous productivity.

Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra might, at first glance, seem like just another reissue wrapped in shiny new packaging. But there is a wrinkle. All of the songs here have been re-recorded. Not remastered. Not remixed. Re-recorded — from scratch. In some ways, this tells you everything you need to know.

Jeff Lynne, long known for his obsessive studio craft, reportedly undertook this project not for commercial necessity but for personal satisfaction. And given Lynne’s enduring preference for solitude in the studio — dating back even to ELO’s prime — it is hardly surprising that no original band members appear. This is Lynne as auteur: producer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, and, effectively, tribute artist to his own work.

So how do the results fare? For the casual listener, the differences may pass unnoticed. The songs are faithful reproductions, executed with the sort of glossy precision Lynne has long championed. For the longtime devotee, however, the alterations — however minor — may prove more distracting than refreshing. Mr. Blue Sky no longer features its quirky coda, and the synthetic “beep-beep” that once introduced Telephone Line has vanished without explanation. These are minor losses, but they are losses nonetheless.

Of particular interest are early-era tracks like 10538 Overture and Showdown, which arguably benefit most from a modern reworking. These were, after all, among Lynne’s earliest studio experiments — charmingly chaotic and occasionally raw. And yet even these, reimagined with modern technology and hindsight, remain strangely static: carbon copies with the edges filed down.

The collection includes one new track, Point of No Return, which stands as the set’s lone original offering. Somewhat ironically, it turns out to be one of the album’s strongest entries — a seamless hybrid of Lynne’s melodic instincts and his current sonic sensibilities. If nothing else, it shows that the well is not entirely dry.

In the end, Mr. Blue Sky is neither an essential listen nor an artistic embarrassment. It is a curiosity — a monument not to ELO’s legacy, but to Jeff Lynne’s enduring fascination with it. For purists, the original recordings remain the definitive versions. For the curious, this offers a well-polished if slightly uncanny reflection. One suspects that Lynne wouldn’t have it any other way.

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