This is much more than a best-of compilation. Electric Light Orchestra were well within their rights to produce such an album, especially under their new moniker of the Jeff Lynne-led band. He was always the grand piece of the band but rebranding to Jeff Lynne’s ELO is more than just a separation from spin-offs like The Electric Light Orchestra: Part Two or The Orkestra. Little touch-ups of their classic works are not just a chance to re-release fine material in a compilation package but to fine-tune them. Lynne lends his still sharp ears to the overdubbing and orchestral advancements made possible by a few decades of musical revolution. Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra is, indeed, the best of their discography. A few hidden gems slip in there too, challenging the concept of compilation efforts elsewhere.
It would have been enough for many to mark this as a decent get-together of those inevitable hits, Mr. Blue Sky opening the album and Point of No Return closing, but this feels like a fresh adaptation of classic songs stuck in the cultural buzz of the UK. Re-releasing the classics is always going to have detractions but an effort is made here to overhaul the sound with little subtleties. Those bits of radio static for the opening of Mr. Blue Sky are removed. A well-paced treat of a listen through their hits, a welcome change of pace with a few of their lesser-listened hits like Strange Magic which pale in comparison to Evil Woman but are worthy of their place here. A nice song, but not essential. Therein lies a bit of a problem for what is billed as the very best of the band. Some of it, frankly, is not. Showdown is still a stickler when compared to their later efforts and the lack of Secret Messages on this rather short compilation is shocking.
One of many oversights but Lynne knows which songs work best in the now rigid live performances. Minor but indifferent snubs of material on an album which could and should have stretched far longer. No need to complain about what is not there when what is makes for a decent listen. But then why bother with The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra if their very best can be found in the albums these songs are ripped from? Compilation records, which this is not billed as but may as well be, are frustratingly futile. This is a compilation not of what you love but what the band finds is marketable. What a revelation. There is a uselessness to these endeavours and despite Lynne developing a few bits and pieces, the changed results are ultimately unremarkable. At best, unnecessary.
Easier it may be to just hunt down the songs you like and listen to those instead of a selection, there is still some heart to this release. The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra is a chance for Lynne to play fast and loose with the band’s history. A few choice songs, a couple of changes to what we perceive as their hits, and a belief in some more left-field songs which soon became classics in their way. Point of No Return is the necessary hook to listening to this compilation, an unreleased track deemed too poor to release at the time but decent enough to build the best-of album around. Artists do it frequently but for ELO, it does little more than shine a light on their established hits, still causing shockwaves.
