Frederick Baptist 2007-06-08
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
This album was one of the very first that I'd ever owned and even after all these years, the sheer brilliance of it still leaves me spellbound. Jeff Lynne without a doubt has the gift of melody and storytelling which comes out in great evidence here. Set as a futuristic warning of a space-age, Asimov-style robotic time to come and one individual's successful escape from this experience, we get track after track of just great, well-written songs that only ELO could come up with. It's difficult to single out any weak track here and my favourite which also is one of my all time favourite tracks is "The Lights Go Down" which still gives me a thrill each time I hear it. This is ELO's greatest album of all and clearly showcases all the reasons for what ELO will also be remembered for: great unique blending of the classical and rock genres, great ear for melody and great songwriting. This version of the album has been well remastered by Jeff Lynne and he writes the liner notes as well.
Now we get in this version a mini-lp replica sleeve design which is rather well done as well. All the lyrics in both English and Japanese are included as well. The sound quality isn't an improvement over the 2001 re-release and this is essentially the same package sound quality-wise as this release except for the mlps design and so if you already have the 2001 remastered version and if you are not an mlps fan, then I see little point in getting this. If, however, you don't have the earlier remastered version, then this represents a good upgrade.
Highly recommended!
