petak, 02.01.2009.
Electric Light Orchestra - ELO II (1973) (Remaster Edit 2005)
As I'm not an "audiophile" or a professional sound engineer, I'm not going to discuss the merits of "bad EQ" or the engineering expertise of EMI's Peter Mew. As a long-time ELO fan, I will say that I like what I hear on this CD. For those not fortunate enough to procure the "First Light" 2-disk UK edition of ELO 2, this is the next best thing. This was the transitional album from the original experiment of Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne, to the singular vision of Jeff Lynne and what became the "classic" ELO sound in the mid 1970's. Lynne himself said that he created the long pieces on this album because that what he thought he was supposed to do - and some of the tracks do suffer a bit from rambling arrangements. But as Roy Wood was involved in the recording of "in Old England Town" and "From The Sun To The World" and then left to form Wizzard, it may have been that Jeff was trying to carry on in the spirit of his old mate. Where Jeff was left to his own muse ("Mama" and "Kuiama"), the results were spectacular. And the decision to cover "Roll Over Beethoven" was a masterstroke - meld Jeff's beloved Beatles with Beethoven, and really rock the house down. It was the beginning of Lynne's pop music renaissance (from "On The Third Day" to "Out Of The Blue" ELO made some of the 70's most memorable music IMHO).
So let's talk about the "Roll Over Beethoven" version that is on this CD. I've heard from sources close to Jeff Lynne that it was Jeff's decision to go with the original UK version of "ROB" on this CD, edited from the "full-length" version of the song that came out on the US LP, both on United Artists Records, and reissued on CBS. I must say that I was disappointed that Jeff chose the UK version over the US version, as that's the one I'm most familiar with (and prefer). But what can we do - Jeff's the artist, and apparently it's his decision. At least it's only edited by a few seconds - not the complete butchering of the song that was the single version featured on "Ole ELO" and other countless compilations. My other disappointment was the decision to go with the UK version of the album cover instead of the US version. At the least I think the US version should have been included in the booklet (the original blue/black landscape picture is in the booklet BTW). So these two deficiencies drop this release down to 4 stars for me.
But overall I think this is a great version of one of my favorite ELO albums. Those of you who are fans of Harvest Records bands from the early to mid 1970's (Pink Floyd, Pretty Things, Edgar Broughton Band, Roy Harper) will like this CD a lot...J. A. DeSilva
Codec: mp3
Bitrate: 320 kB/s
Size: 170 MB
Genre : Progressive Rock
2000mustangs
Tracklist.
01. In Old England Town (Boogie No. 2) 6.57
02. Momma 6.59
03. Roll Over Beethoven 7.03
04. From The Sun To The World (Boogie No. 1) 8.18
05. Kuiama 11.21
06. Showdown (Bonus) 4.11
07. In Old England Town (Instrumental) (Bonus) 2.43
08. Baby I Apologise (Bonus) 3.42
09. Auntie (Ma-Ma-Ma Belle Take 1) (Bonus) 1.19
10. Auntie (Ma-Ma-Ma Belle Take 2) (Bonus) 4.03
11. Mambo (Dreaming of 4000 Take 1) (Bonus) 5.02
12. Everyone's Born To Die (Bonus) 4.40
13. Roll Over Beethoven (Take 1) (Bonus) 8.16
