Released in tandem with the 30th anniversary edition of Out Of The Blue is, oddly, the last album released by anything resembling ELO’s original lineup as a band. In the years after Secret Messages, bassist Kelly Groucutt vanished from the lineup, leaving a three-piece outfit of Bev Bevan, Richard Tandy and Jeff Lynne, looking in this album’s photography like three guys angling for a chance to be extras in the background of a Miami Vice scene. With Lynne tired of touring, and Bevan tiring of Lynne’s increasingly elaborate studio sessions, this was the end of the road for ELO as a group. There’s a certain weariness to the songs that, while it doesn’t prevent them from being decent music, lets one read between the lines a bit. It was all over.

For this remastered edition of the now 21-year-old album, we’re treated to more honest-to-God outtakes recorded at the same time as the rest of the album’s tracks than any other ELO remaster since the group’s 1972 album. A strikingly different version of “Heaven Only Knows” is presented here, having become the stuff of legend, played only at pre-concert fan club gatherings and other such functions, as well as vintage 1986 B-sides “Destination Unknown”, “A Matter Of Fact” and “Caught In A Trap”. Some of these have been heard before, on the 1990 box set Afterglow (proof that, even in “retirement,” ELO wasn’t out of circulation for long). The real gem of this CD’s bonus tracks is “In For The Kill” – it’s essentially “Caught In A Trap” in a slightly different form, with almost identical music with completely different and (for Jeff Lynne) atypically almost-political lyrics, but the best part is Lynne’s exploration of almost Crosby, Stills & Nash-inspired harmonies. It’s a crying shame this got left off the original album (especially an album that arrived just a year before the movie Wall Street) because in retrospect, it would’ve been the best, most energetic follow-up single to “Calling America”. This song alone is just about worth the price of the album.

There were still other rarities from this era that could’ve filled out the CD to its full capacity – there also exists a lyric variation for “Matter Of Fact” – but alas, that opportunity was missed and the CD only runs to about an hour.

The album itself is still quite good, better than most critics would have you believe, with tunes like “Calling America” and “Is It Alright” living up to ELO’s best standards, although produced with much more modern technology. In a way, though, the 80s instrumentation and style is probably what hurts Balance Of Power the most – the album is robbed of the relative timelessness of, say, A New World Record, and some songs just become casualties of the 80s. With some of ELO’s best (and better known) material, when Lynne was able to overcome his fixation on a four-to-the-flour disco beat and Chic-style guitar riffs, the songs withstand the test of time better; one listen can pretty much nail this album down to the late ’80s. Not that that’s a bad thing.

The only truly sad part about it is that this represents the end of the remastered ELO albums, and possibly the mining of that band’s vaults as well. The liner notes booklet talks about Lynne’s revival of ELO for 2001’s Zoom in the past tense, as if that marks the end of the band’s legacy. One wonders if we aren’t being sent a bit of a secret message there.

1. Heaven Only Knows (2:56)
2. So Serious (2:43)
3. Getting To The Point (4:30)
4. Secret Lives (3:32)
5. Is It Alright (3:27)
6. Sorrow About To Fall (4:04)
7. Without Someone (3:51)
8. Calling America (3:30)
9. Endless Lies (3:00)
10. Send It (3:10)
11. Opening (0:24)
12. Heaven Only Knows (alternate version) (2:34)
13. In For The Kill (3:16)
14. Secret Lives (alternate take) (3:26)
15. Sorrow About To Fall (alternate mix) (3:50)
16. Caught In A Trap (3:47)
17. Destination Unknown (4:10)

Released by: Epic / Legacy
Release date: 2007 (originally released in 1986)
Total running time: 56:10

Out Of The Blue is, quite simply, one of the most iconic albums of the ’70s, hands-down. It seems that, despite its intricate arrangements and impeccable musicianship, this album will simply never have the rock critic cachet of, say, Dark Side Of The Moon. And yet these days, one hears more young artists coming out of the woodwork trying to achieve the sound of Jeff Lynne and company than one hears Pink Floyd sound-alikes. You can do the math there if you like.

This remastered edition adds only a handful of bonus material, largely because the original double LP takes up most of a single CD. (I would’ve been happy to go to two CDs, a la the remasters of ELO’s first two albums, but there’s not much indication that there was really enough material to go that route.) The one full bonus track that isn’t a demo or other form of outtake is the lovely “Latitude 88 North,” a song which, according to the notes, was partially written at the same time as the other Out Of The Blue tracks but just didn’t make the cut. Of the various bonus tracks that have come along since the Flashback box set ushered in this new era of “remastered with a few freshly recorded bonus tracks” activity, “Latitude 88 North” is the best one to come along since “Love Changes All” and “Helpless” (or, for that matter, Zoom). Even if it’s clearly a recent recording (at best, the song itself may be 30 years old, but the track itself is much more recent), it’s a great song that hearkens back to ELO’s glory days, and it at least sounds closer to that classic style than “Surrender” (from the remastered A New World Record) does. Bringing up the rear are an excerpt from a demo of “Wild West Hero” (which demonstrates great harmony, but lousy lyrics that were replaced in the final version) and the rousing instrumental “The Quick And The Daft”, which most certainly is a 1977 original – good material for serious fans and students of ELO’s work to chew on, but nothing that will really excite casual listeners.

Fortunately for casual listeners, one of the most iconic albums of the ’70s is still here, perfectly intact and remastered, and it’s never sounded better. The remastering isn’t so radical as to have me reassesing my favorite songs, but it’s nice to hear them cleaned up and sounding sharper than ever before. The booklet-style case is also a treat, with an extensive set of notes about the making of Out Of The Blue. There’s a standard version of this CD with a slightly pared-down version of that booklet, but the deluxe edition – bound like a little book, featuring the full liner notes and even a miniature replica of the original LP’s punch-out cardstock spaceship – is a real treat for fans of the band’s work. I’ll admit I just haven’t had the heart to punch out the spaceship and build it, though; I did that with the one that came with the LP, years and years and years ago, and lost track of that one; I think I’ll leave this one intact, and maybe when my own child is around the same age I was when I first heard this album, it’ll be punched out and put together.

Not a bad package at all, celebrating an album that means a lot to quite a few people, even those who would never in a million years profess to be ELO fans. Though I’d wager that the original release of Out Of The Blue created plenty of those as well.

1. Turn To Stone (3:49)
2. It’s Over (4:08)
3. Sweet Talkin’ Woman (3:49)
4. Across The Border (3:53)
5. Night In The City (4:03)
6. Starlight (4:31)
7. Jungle (3:53)
8. Believe Me Now (1:21)
9. Steppin’ Out (4:40)
10. Standin’ In The Rain (3:59)
11. Big Wheels (5:32)
12. Summer And Lightning (4:15)
13. Mr. Blue Sky (5:03)
14. Sweet Is The Night (3:27)
15. The Whale (5:07)
16. Birmingham Blues (4:23)
17. Wild West Hero (4:45)
18. Wild West Hero (alternate bridge – home demo) (0:26)
19. The Quick And The Daft (1:50)
20. Latitude 88 North (3:24)

Released by: Epic / Legacy
Release date: 2007 (originally released in 1977)
Total running time: 76:18

One of the three most recently remastered ELO albums, Face The Music is long overdue for a fresh listen, being – arguably – the first album of the band’s golden years. It’s also the album with “Evil Woman” and “Face The Music” on it, which certainly doesn’t hurt. (Sadly, during the remastering process, nobody remembered to kick “Down Home Town” out of the original track listing.)

As with the other remastered titles from ELO’s back catalog, the sound has been sharpened up quite a bit, softening a few rough edges that had become noticeable with repeat listens. The obligatory bonus tracks are included as well, though they’re not much to write home about. In the liner notes booklet, Jeff Lynne says he prefers the slightly longer, stripped-down and orchestra-free new mix of “Evil Woman,” but even with that extra verse and chorus that we hadn’t heard before, something is just missing without that big string section adding to the song. Similarly, a series of demos for the menacing “Fire On High” intro will interest serious students of Lynne’s work, but maybe not anyone else, and the U.S. single edit of “Strange Magic” isn’t so staggeringly different as to be a real revelation.

That said, it’s surprising that a song that we have heard before turns out to be the real gem of the bonus tracks. Closing out this new edition of Face The Music is a completely instrumental mix of Waterfall, with the full-up instrumentation both from ELO’s rhythm section and from the studio orchestra – all that’s missing is the vocals. (Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I’m wondering if Lynne’s ever thought of re-re-releasing some of ELO’s material in this form, both for the karaoke fans out there and those of us who just love the intricate arrangements.) Heard in all of its vocal-less glory, “Waterfall” is an excellent candidate for this treatment, standing out as a fantastic performance even as an instrumental.

Whether or not one really great instrumental of a song you’ve already heard is worth buying the album over again is up to you, but that alone is just about worth the price of admission for die-hard ELO fans – and in the end, “Down Home Town” aside, Face The Music is still a fine album and a prime specimen of early ’70s rock.

1. Fire On High (5:31)
2. Waterfall (4:11)
3. Evil Woman (4:29)
4. Nightrider (4:26)
5. Poker (3:32)
6. Strange Magic (4:29)
7. Down Home Town (3:54)
8. One Summer Dream (5:51)
9. Fire On High Intro (alternate mix) (3:23)
10. Evil Woman (stripped-down mix) (5:00)
11. Strange Magic (U.S. single edit) (3:27)
12. Waterfall (instrumental mix) (4:15)

Released by: Epic / Legacy
Release date: 2006 (originally released in 1975)
Total running time: 52:28

With any slate of back catalogue reissues, you’re already running the risk of the consumer saying “been there, done that.” But it takes talent to achieve the same effect when it comes to the added-value bonus material. Maybe that’s a little unfair; as with the other ELO remasters to date, 1973’s On The Third Day has never sounded better. The apocalyptic-sounding fusion of strings and the closest ELO ever came to heavy metal positively sparkles, and the liner notes finally give a little bit of insight into the making of the album; with its bizarre, quasi-Biblical themes, Third Day has never ceased to fascinate me. It’s territory ELO hadn’t ventured into before, and never ventured into again.

Now here’s the problem: like a great many other things covered on this site, ELO has a strong cult following. Its fans snatch up any release that holds the promise of previously unheard material from any era of the group’s classic repertoire. This isn’t really a problem until you realize that almost all of the “bonus tracks” attached to this re-release have been heard before. The various early takes and mixes of “Ma-Ma-Ma Belle” and “Dreaming Of 4000″ were included on the 2-disc UK reissue of Electric Light Orchestra II (and, before that, on an early 90s compilation called Early ELO), and so too was the previously unreleased (and still very Dylanesque) song “Everyone’s Born To Die”. The em>only really “new” track here is a wild track of various orchestral interludes which were eventually mixed in between songs on the original album – so it’s not that you haven’t heard them before, you just haven’t heard them on their own.

It’s not a total disappointment, since not everyone will have gotten that UK import (and since those bonus tracks didn’t show up on the North American version of the ELO II remaster), but aside from some nice liner notes and a sharper sound, hardcore ELO fans won’t find much new here that they haven’t heard already.

1. Ocean Breakup / King Of The Universe (4:07)
2. Bluebird Is Dead (4:42)
3. Oh No, Not Susan (3:07)
4. New World Rising / Ocean Breakup Reprise (4:05)
5. Showdown (4:09)
6. Daybreaker (3:51)
7. Ma-Ma-Ma Belle (3:56)
8. Dreaming Of 4000 (5:04)
9. In The Hall Of The Mountain King (6:37)
10. Auntie (Ma-Ma-Ma Belle Take 1) (1:19)
11. Auntie (Ma-Ma-Ma Belle Take 2) (4:05)
12. Mambo (Dreaming Of 4000 alternate mix) (5:05)
13. Everyone’s Born To Die (3:43)
14. Interludes (3:40)

Released by: Epic / Legacy
Release date: 2006 (originally released in 1973)
Total running time: 57:30

After nearly ten years of touring and recording, Electric Light Orchestra Part II – which included original ELO veterans Bev Bevan, Kelly Groucutt, Louis Clark and Mik Kaminski – met its match. It wasn’t touring exhaustion – unlike the usually reclusive Jeff Lynne, these guys love playing live. In this case, it was Lynne himself, who was in the process of reclaiming the ELO name for an upcoming greatest hits box set and an all-new album of original Lynne material; Lynne wanted any other use of the ELO name dropped. Drummer Bev Bevan, who had been with ELO ever since the band evolved from The Move in 1971, decided not only to give up the ELO Part II moniker, but to retire from performing as well.

This left ELO Part II – now consisting of Groucutt, Clark, Kaminski, Eric Troyer and newly recruited guitarist Parthenon Huxley – with no drummer and no name. Huxley called on a friend of his, a fellow L.A. session player named Gordon Townsend, to audition for the open drum seat, and the rest of the band approved. Rechristened The Orchestra, the band continued touring, also booking studio time out of their own pockets on several tour stops to lay down tracks for a new album. The result, which the band proudly proclaims was created without a single cent of money from any labels or outside benefactors, is No Rewind, which marks an incredible reinvention of the group’s sound.

The band’s new blood – Huxley and Townsend – asserts itself right off the bat with “Jewel And Johnny”. Kicking off with a beat not a million miles away from the fun, jaunty gait of “Mr. Blue Sky” itself, Jewel and Johnny shows that the new recruits have, in fact, brought The Orchestra that much closer to the sound of old-school ELO. (It’s worth noting at this juncture that Huxley is from the same pool of reared-on-the-70s L.A. power pop talent that has also given us Jason Falkner and Jon Brion.) There were tracks on both of ELO Part II’s studio albums that faintly irritated me because they made it sound like the group was trying to bring a hard rock sound to the table; not so with No Rewind. The songs here are finely crafted pop-rock with a Beatlesque sensibility, which is, ironically, what Jeff Lynne was always trying to do with the original ELO. And the songs featuring Huxley on lead vocals are a real treat, because it sure doesn’t hurt that Huxley’s versatile baritone isn’t a million miles away from the voice of the aforementioned Mr. Lynne. Whether consciously or not, there seems to have been a reassessment of what made the original ELO what it was; the songwriting is sharper this time around, both musically and lyrically, with fantastic results.

Highlights include “Jewel And Johnny”, the mesmerizing and majestic “Let Me Dream” (co-written by ELO Part II veteran Eric Troyer and original ELO violin virtuoso Mik Kaminski), “Can’t Wait To See You” (another tune written and sung by Huxley, which is as close as one can imagine to a lost Jeff Lynne song), and the Troyer-written tracks “No Rewind” and “Say Goodbye”. The orchestral components of each song are several orders of magnitude beyond most of the output of ELO Part II – arranger Louis Clark is all over this album, imbuing the new songs with the densely layered string sound he gave to the classic ELO albums A New World Record and Out Of The Blue, but also wisely backing off and giving Mik Kaminski numerous opportunities to wow us with a single violin.

Curiously absent, however, are many frontman opportunities for classic ELO bassist/backup singer Kelly Groucutt; when he joined ELO Part II full-time in 1991, his distinctive background vocals brought the whole exercise much closer to being “real ELO.” He was all over the next studio album as both lead and background vocalist, as much as any one member of the band could be with the rotating-vocalist scheme, but he’s in the lead on only two out of ten songs here.

One of those two songs, incidentally, is a reworking of “Twist And Shout” which is almost funny in how it deceptively repaints the song as a downbeat dirge before allowing the original tune to emerge. Once we’re in familiar territory, however, it’s pretty much a pastiche of the Beatles’ cover of “Twist And Shout”, which is my one disappointment with No Rewind – all of the other songs are not only originals, but damned good originals. Ironically, the best of those originals sound more worthy of the ELO name than anything the band’s done before – so naturally, they’re no longer permitted to use the name.

No Rewind, whether in its limited (and now out-of-print) edition issued through the band’s official web site or in a real live label release from, of all places, Argentina, is worth a listen. When I first heard it, I was thinking “Dear Jeff Lynne, get back together with your old bandmates.” But having listened to No Rewind more and more, and taking into consideration that it’s taking a long time for either Lynne or his erstwhile bandmates to release new material, I retract that. There are now two entities turning out an increasingly uncommon kind of music that I love. And that’s not a bad deal.

1. Jewel & Johnny (3:56)
2. Say Goodbye (4:25)
3. No Rewind (4:07)
4. Over London Skies (4:32)
5. Twist And Shout (6:34)
6. Can’t Wait To See You (3:28)
7. If Only (4:38)
8. I Could Write A Book (3:12)
9. Let Me Dream (4:01)
10. Before We Go (5:03)

Released by: ART Music (Argentinian release)
Release date: 2005
Total running time: 44:01

Originally devised as a band that would “pick up where the ‘Beatles’ I Am The Walrus’ left off,” the Electric Light Orchestra was well on its way to carving out its own admittedly unconventional niche when the band’s leadership was split down the middle. Stunned by the sudden defection of founding member Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne and company regrouped, brought in a few more players, and kept the band’s original mandate – a rock group with its own live string section – intact. The result, in 1972, was two vinyl sides of beauty running the gamut from heavy metal to near-classical rock to ballads. Now, some 31 years later, the result is two full-length CDs of that same beauty and then some.

The original album – only five songs in all, but some of them epic-length – is a wonder to hear in this newly remastered edition, and the early takes of songs like “Ma-Ma-Ma Belle” and “Dreaming Of 4000″ (intended for the group’s third album) are revealing looks at those tunes’ evolution. But the real treat here is a handful of songs we’d never heard before, with the jewel in that particular crown being “Everybody’s Born To Die”, a very surprisingly Dylan-esque number that makes one think that Jeff Lynne listened to “Like A Rolling Stone” for inspiration (both musical and lyrical) and then concocted his own uniquely ELO-ified electric folk song. The quality of the recording is such that it sounds like it could’ve been recorded yesterday, and despite it being a Dylan pastiche, it’s at least a good Dylan pastiche. It’s also a marvel to hear in a raw, un-adorned form; had it progressed far enough to be included on ELO II or On The Third Day, chances are the vocals would’ve been echoed, double-tracked, or otherwise messed with. Here we get to hear the raw power of Jeff Lynne belting this song out with no electronic trickery.

I was less enthralled with the three numbers featuring former Move lead singer Carl Wayne on vocals. With the ELO rhythm section of Lynne, Bev Bevan, Mike de Albuquerque and Richard Tandy backing him, Wayne croons three Lynne originals (including a string-free cover of “Mama”). Conflicting with earlier news that Lynne had attempted to recruit Wayne to replace Roy Wood in ELO, the liner notes explain that manager Don Arden hooked Wayne up with Lynne in an attempt to break Wayne’s “cabaret crooning” image to relaunch his stalled rock career. Even if that’s the case, it wasn’t much of a mold-breaker – it really comes across in the style of early 70s Christian rock more than anything. If Carl Wayne needed a direction, I much preferred the hard-psychedelic-rock re-interpretations of several standards on the latter half of the Move’s Shazam, but it’s still interesting to hear what else the members of ELO (and the Move) were doing on the side.

I also have to admit to enjoying the wealth of material in the two liner notes booklets: we finally have printed lyrics for this album, and the press reviews from the time of the album’s release are insightful and hilarious. John Peel’s review of the “Roll Over Beethoven” single in particular cracks me up for two passages: “The strings, rocking like bitches, play sort of ghost-train evil” and “If it is not a number one, I shall come among you with a whip.” Now that’s a music review! I’ll make sure to use the latter of these two memorable phrases in a future review, and perhaps the first if the opportunity should present itself.

Sadly, this is probably the last of the ELO remastered albums, due to budget constraints and copyright issues still persisting from the band’s early switches from one label to another, but even so, what a way to go out.

I don’t suppose walking among the Sony Music brass with a whip would help to resurrect the reissues, would it?

Disc one:
1. In Old England Town (Boogie No. 2) (6:57)
2. Momma… (7:00)
3. Roll Over Beethoven (7:04)
4. From The Sun To The World (Boogie No. 1) (8:18)
5. Kuiama (11:21)
6. Showdown (4:11)
7. In Old England Town (Instrumental) (2:44)
8. Baby I Apologise (3:43)
9. Auntie (Ma Ma Ma Belle, take 1) (1:19)
10. Auntie (Ma Ma Ma Belle, take 2) (4:03)
11. Mambo (Dreaming Of 4000, take 1) (3:03)
12. Everyone’s Born To Die (4:40)
13. Roll Over Beethoven (take 1) (8:16)

Disc two:
1. Brian Matthew introduces ELO (0:22)
2. From The Sun To The World (Boogie No. 1 – BBC Sessions) (7:26)
3. Momma (BBC Sessions) (6:57)
4. Roll Over Beethoven (single version) (4:36)
5. Showdown (take 1) (4:18)
6. Your World (with Carl Wayne – take 2) (4:55)
7. Get A Hold Of Myself (with Carl Wayne – take 2) (4:43)
8. Mama (with Carl Wayne – take 1) (4:59)
9. Wilf’s Solo (instrumental) (3:40)
10. Roll Over Beethoven (BBC Sessions) (7:40)

Released by: EMI/Harvest
Release date: 2003
Disc one total running time: 74:41
Disc two total running time: 49:38