With a quarter of the band engulfed in steam, presumably shot from a broken pipe, the image Electric Light Orchestra presents is peculiar. They were always a band that struggled to put themselves on the cover. Opting for a spaceship emblazoned with the initials of the group is the wisest move they made. It means working around covers like The Light Shines On Vol. II, a strange compilation album released at a time when the band’s sound was extremely different to their early works. Gone were the literal orchestral accompaniments and dedications to classical music, and in was a middle-of-the-road sound which suited the band, its listeners, and their stage presence. Releasing Discovery in 1979 would give the band their biggest commercial hit, and it seems Harvest, the label behind The Light Shines On Vol. II, wanted a taste. Rightly so. Who wouldn’t? It does mean a strange compilation comes to be.
Not one worth listening to, either. The earliest years of ELO are interesting to those wanting a history lesson in what the band would become. Few are heading into The Electric Light Orchestra or ELO 2, and though the latter is a quality release, neither is strong enough to form the core of a compilation. When both are used, the issues are just the same. A merger between the first two pieces of work from the band, soon to be fronted by Jeff Lynne, is a weak foundation to work from. It feels like a regression from The Light Shines On, an album which had the common courtesy to feature a single song from On the Third Day. How spoilt we were by that, in hindsight. The Light Shines On Vol. II treads through a similar setlist. Whatever did not feature on the first compilation can be found here, and there are already some overlaps at play.
It’s not as though the first two albums had much repeatability for the ongoing compilation market. Roll Over Beethoven and 10538 Overture, two of the band’s best early years songs, feature on both releases. Don’t be fooled by the “single” and “full length” comments on the back, they make very little difference. Any inclusion of interest here can be explained away as an inevitability. Whatever did not feature on The Light Shines On is a necessity for The Light Shines On Vol. II. It is not as though there is much choice. Those potential archive tapes, demos and other recordings are unfortunately absent. If compiling the works of the band means capitalising on the name, then at least feature a song or two of interest. Be it as a selling point or a sincere gesture to listeners who wish to hear a jumbled spread of the first two albums, it’d be a nice touch.
Electric Light Orchestra compilations suffer from this no matter the decade they are from. Even now, the collected works are a showcase of the band’s Lynne-fronted heyday and little more. These compilations only feature the deep cuts when material is running dry, when repeating themselves after a previous release would be noticeable. It’s clear from this Harvest release, and yet it happened anyway. Manhattan Rumble and From the Sun to the World (Boogie #1) would never make it onto a tracklist which features more than two albums’ worth of material. It just cannot be. A weak collection of songs with little interest in them. You are, once more, better off listening to both studio albums. It’s a compilation which proves to be dead on arrival. Landfill listening.
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