Electric Light Orchestra
Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best Of
Electric Light Orchestra

ELO is one big reason for the music preferences I've developed in my youth as the record collection I grew up with had plenty of good music, but there was about ten of those that really made a huge impact on me and they were 'Abracadabra' and 'Circle Of Love' by The Steve Miller Band, 'Kilroy Was Here' and 'Paradice Theatre' by Styx, 'Rockin' All over The World' by Status Quo, 'High Voltage' by AC/DC, 'Hotel California' by The Eagles and then there was 'A New World Record' by this band - Electric Light Orchestra. But that wasn't the only ELO album I grew up with, it was just the one that made the biggest impact on me as I really loved how they involved classical instruments such as violins, violas, cello and all kinds of instruments you normally didn't hear in this music. But I also liked their melodic and somewhat progressive rock and apparently I wasn't the only one.

Along with bands like Queen, Fleetwood mac and Led Zeppelin, ELO was without doubt one of the biggest rock bands in the mid 70's and their career could almost only be summarized by one word: amazing! And for you to realize actually how amazing it is I'll spend the rest of this paragraph giving you a few numbers: With 13 studio albums (and four live albums) ELO managed to get 27 singles charted in the top 40's not only in their native England but also America (which is more than any other band). 19 of these 27 made it to the top 20's in America and 20 made the top 20 in England. By today they've managed to get 19 certifications in Canada (gold or better), 21 in the US and 38 in the UK. All in all they've sold way over 50 million albums and peaked charts all over the world, except for England and Canada also Sweden, Australia and Germany - to mention a few (but amazingly not in the US despite their success). The 12 songs on this album have a combined record of featuring in 26 movies (according to IMDB) and a whole bunch of television series. I could go on, but I think you get the picture so lets move on - let's look at the first ever best of album by ELO… in 2012.

I say in 2012 as it was as late as last year that we saw the last ELO best of before this one when Epic, Legacy and Sony went all in together and released 'The Essential Electric Light Orchestra' - an updated verison of the 2003 release with the same name. But it wasn't the only best of ELO in 2011, as we also saw the album 'The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra' being released in 2011, which also was an updated verison of a previously released best of (from 2005). The fact is that there are more releases of best of ELO-albums than there are actual ELO albums and not just a few more, but almost twice as many, so what makes this best of release so special? Well, looking at the tracklist I can only see one thing - the previously unreleased Point Of No Return that concludes the album.

The title song of this best of, Mr. Blue Sky (first released in 1977 on the album 'Out Of The Blue') is a happy song that could make pretty much every depressed teen (or adult for that matter) positive regardless of their current problems - still 35 years after the release. The song had a big part in both the opening and closing ceremony of the 2012 London Summer Olympics earlier this year and I don't know if that's the reason for it getting the title track or not - but it's great song so why wouldn't it be the title song? Mr. Blue Sky is followed by ten of the most classic and famous ELO songs (but not the Chuck berry cover Roll Over Beethoven, that has become one of their most beloved songs) before the album closes with the previously unreleased Point Of No return. Most previously unreleased songs included on best of albums tend to be worthless garbage that has no place on such an album and the only reason for them being there is to make the album more interesting but here I must say that Point Of No Return really deserves a spot on this album - it's actually a great song!

Now, Point Of No Return might be a reason to check this best of album out, but the biggest reason for why anyone would want to buy the album is in my opinion something else. Why would we need yet another best of album for ELO as there's been over 30 released already and the last two came as late as last year? Well, there is no good reason for doing so, unless there's something special about this release - and special it is. During some time now Jeff Lynne has, on his own, taken the time to go through the songs featured on this album and rerecorded everything, resung everything and remastered everything. The result is that this best of have better sound than the originals and all though most of the tracks appears to be more or less exactly the same as the originals, some of the tracks have really improved song-wise as well.

Still, despite the above I have some problems motivating this album simply because there are so many out there already. Sure, this one is only twelve songs and have that special element in the fact that all songs are remade, but two best of albums in 2011, one in 2007, two in 2006 and three in 2005 makes eight best of releases in the last six years before this one. I don't doubt that someone collecting ELO will love this release nor saying that either the songs or the rerecordings aren't good, but still… If you like ELO and don't own anything with them - I think it's a must have. And for those who only own one or two albums (unless they are 'A New World Record' as three of these songs are actually collected from that album) it's also a should have. But the normal ELO fan that have most of their albums it's not necessary - the rerecordings are not that different and I'm sure you'll be able to get your hands on Point Of return without buying the entire album. But I don't want to say these things without pointing out that this really is one awesome collection. The fact that it only is twelve songs makes it much better than that previous mentioned 'The Essential Electric Light Orchestra' with its two discs packed with as many songs as the CDs had available. Here the great songs just keeps coming without fillers anywhere.

But when eveything is counted for I still can't help feeling that, despite all the qualities in this album, it's a pretty pointless album. It might feature the best versions of these songs ever recorded and it might be of top notch quality all the way but it's still just a bit of nostalgia that we've had endless opportunities to get before this album was released. 'Mr. Blue Sky - The Very Best Of Electric Light Orchestra' is a good album - but I really can't see why we need it.