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Editorial Reviews

Electric Light Orchestra's third album showed a marked advancement, with a fuller, more cohesive sound from the band as a whole and major improvements in Jeff Lynne's singing and songwriting. This is where the band took on its familiar sound, Lynne's voice suddenly showing an attractive expressiveness reminiscent of John Lennon in his early solo years, and also sporting a convincing white British soulful quality that was utterly lacking earlier. The group also plugged the holes that made its work seem so close to being ragged on those earlier records. "Showdown" and "Ma-Ma-Ma Belle" (the latter featuring Marc Bolan on double lead guitar with Lynne) became AM radio fixtures while "Daybreaker" became a concert opener for the group and, along with "In the Hall of the Mountain King," kept the group's FM/art rock credentials in order.

[ELO's third album -- now sporting its original U.K. cover image -- arrived in its remastered, audiophile version with a rich, subtle sound that captures not only the depth of the original master but also its finest nuances, so that you can practically hear the bowing on the strings for "Bluebird Is Dead," and the opening "Ocean Breakup" is loud enough to annoy your neighbors without much trouble or a big volume boost. And even the familiar AM radio material such as "Showdown," "Daybreaker," and "Ma-Ma-Ma Belle" get new life pumped into them with the presentation here -- what one really appreciates on this new edition is finally hearing the master presented full out, the way it was done in the studio originally. Lynne was immensely proud of what he and the band -- which went through some important personnel changes in the midst of recording this album -- accomplished, and one can now fully understand his reaction. This was progressive rock, but with a distinctly rock & roll edge and also elements of pop-soul that wasn't quite like anything else coming out of either the prog rock or soul fields as they existed then; indeed, it's easy to hear now in these tapes something of a spirit close to Lynne's Birmingham roots, coupled with the experimentation he picked up under the influence of the Beatles' records. He didn't have a Paul McCartney or a George Harrison, or even a George Martin to play off of and augment what he was doing, but as a one-man creative operation, the results are still impressive, and the outtakes only enhance the listening. The early versions of "Ma-Ma-Ma Belle" (titled "Auntie"), the alternate mix of "Dreaming of 4000" (designated "Mambo"), plus the previously unissued "Evereyone's Born to Die" -- which somehow makes this reviewer think of mid-'60s Bob Dylan amid its over-produced prog rock attributes -- and "Interludes" all let you in on different aspects of the creative process at work behind this album. The extensive annotation fills in the holes between it all in a very satisfying fashion.] Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

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