Original Album Classics [Box set]

If you are an avid E.L.O.fan (like me) you may already own these albums, but if you were a fan in the seventies who may now be looking to update your vinyl collection to cd this is an ideal opportunity to do so at a bargain price.
For those of you who are casual fans who have only recently become interested in E.L.O. or a music fan of Muse,Coldplay, Oasis,Killers, Manic street Preachers etc this is your chance to own the classic albums of arguably the biggest band in the world in the seventies.
You may be pleasantly surprised to learn that this collection includes 9 top ten U.K. SINGLES and 2 No.1 albums.
It starts with E.L.O.s third album ON THE THIRD DAY which was less experimental than their first 2 albums where the bandleader, producer and somgwriter extradonaire Jeff Lynne finally starts to put the strings and synths more in the background to play a more complimentary role to his obvious vocal talents.Highlights here include the radio friendly(U.S.No 12) bluesy rocker Showdown and E.L.O.s heaviest track ever Ma Ma-Ma-Belle with its highly distinctive guitar riff with help from the late great Marc Bolan.
Face The Music (1975) sees the beginning of E.L.O.s golden period where the 7 piece band is stabilised and Lynne, keyboardist Tandy, arranger Louis Clark, bassist Groucutt and drummer Bev Bevan finally hit on what becomes known as the E.L.O. sound and includes their first worldwide top ten hit Evil Woman and U.S. top 20 hit Strange Magic.
A New World Record is often regarded as E.L.O.s finest hour and its hard to argue with this,with its soaring strings and multi-tracked vocals and Lynne s magical musical melodies to the fore to give the listener a wonderful listening experience. It stayed charted in the U.K. for 100 wks and spent 6 months on the billboard charts. Outside the top ten singles it includes probably the best ending of an album bar none in Shangri-La.This was 1976-1977 and a report from U.S. stated that between record sales and tour receipts the band would gross 10 million dollars which was an indication of how popular they were at this time.
After the worldwide success of A New World Record and its multi-platinum follow up Out of The Blue which is not included here Lynne took the unusual step of tinkering with a winning formula and surprisingly dropped the string section for 1979s effort Discovery. This was seen as sacrileige by many E.L.O. fans and Disco very was much maligned for the inclusion of U.K. disco top ten hits Shine a little love and Last train to London. However despite this setback and the fact that there was little promotion and no E.L.O. tour or appearences at this time i think it is a testament to Lynne`s songwriting ability that the album went platinum (300000 sales) on the day of release in the U.K. and was No 1 for 5 weeks in total and saw E.L.O. become the best-selling artist in the U.K. for 1979 and included E.L.O.`S biggest single success, the rocky non disco Don`t Bring Me Down.
Finally, ELO`s 1981 Time brings this great collection to a wonderful finish with this futuristic synth-string under-rated concept album which is filled with more excellent tunes from Lynne and deservedly reached No 1 in the UK and closes with the up-lifting Hold on Tight.
All these albums were remastered by Lynne himself in the last 10 years so the sound quality is excellent and include some interesting bonus tracks and though you will miss the lyric sheets and liner notes it is a chance to acquire these historic albums at a low cost

What we've got here is the entire ELO studio album discography between On the Third Day and Time, minus the best sellers Eldorado and Out of the Blue. As is typical for this series, albums that still sell reasonably well on their own are excluded from the "original album classics" box.

Each album is represented by the most recent mastering and each has bonus tracks. The bonus tracks are hit and miss, but the albums sound good and if you're an ELO fan, you will want them all, so this is a good and cheap way to get them. They come in mini sleeves: Cheap quality reproductions of the original covers, no inner sleeves, no liner notes, no gatefold for Discovery. But it's really about the music, right?

As for the music: Four of these five albums are classics: On the Third Day, Face the Music, New World Record and Time. The only weak link here is Discovery, which is a bit too slick and with a weaker collection of songs. It's not terrible, just not up to the standards of the other four. That said, any fan of ELO will absolutely want all five.

This is highly produced, Beatles influenced pop music with a lot of orchestral (or on Time synth) embellishment. No one did it better than Jeff Lynne/ELO at the time. I'm not sure anyone has done it better since.

Highly recommended.

I saw there is no track listing so I thought that one may be helpful.
If you see a mistake just add a comment and I will adjust.
Although a good price (just under 11 British Pounds this more expensive than others in the series)
But in neat little cardboard sleeves and the whole no bigger than a boxed CD this makes it a good buy.

On the Third Day,
1. Ocean Breakup/King Of The Universe
2. Bluebird Is Dead
3. Oh No Not Susan
4. New World Rising/Ocean Breakup
5. Showdown
6. Daybreaker
7. Ma Ma Ma Belle
8. Dreaming Of 4000
9. In The Hall Of The Mountain King
10. Auntie
11. Auntie
12. Mambo
13. Everyone's Born To Die
14. Interludes

Face the Music
1. Fire On High
2. Waterfall
3. Evil Woman
4. Nightrider
5. Poker
6. Strange Magic
7. Down Home Town
8. One Summer Dream
9. Fire On High
10. Evil Woman
11. Strange Magic
12. Waterfall

New World Record
1. Tightrope
2. Telephone Line
3. Rockaria
4. Mission (A World Record)
5. So Fine
6. Livin' Thing
7. Above The Clouds
8. Do Ya
9. Shangri La
10. Telephone Line
11. Surrender
12. Tightrope
13. Above The Clouds
14. So Fine
15. Telephone Line

Discovery,
1. Shine A Little Love
2. Confusion
3. Need Her Love
4. Diary Of Horace Wimp
5. Last Train To London
6. Midnight Blue
7. On The Run
8. Wishing
9. Don't Bring Me Down
10. On The Run
11. Second Time Around
12. Little Town Flirt

Time
1. Prologue
2. Twilight
3. Yours Truly 2095
4. Ticket To The Moon
5. Way Life's Meant To Be
6. Another Heart Breaks
7. Rain Is Falling
8. From The End Of The World
9. Lights Go Down
10. Here Is The News
11. 21st Century Man
12. Hold On Tight
13. Epilogue
14. Bouncer
15. When Time Stood Still
16. Julie Don't Live Here

Bring Back Roy Wood!!!