SHOWDOWN

A long time ago I was really interested in the pre-Out of the Blue period of ELO and I used to pick up anything I could find from this period in used record stores. This was one of the items I found, a "best of" compilation of music from ELO's first three albums. There really wasn't any reason to get this since all of these songs were easily available on their respective studio albums. It will probably never be reissued on CD for the same reason.

Whether this is really the best stuff from ELO is debatable. I think Harvest was probably interested in taking advantage of the success the band had up to that time and decided it could use a little more money. Of the eight songs, only half of them could be considered "best" in terms of ELO's progressive rock output. Three of them were charted singles, either in the UK or US. Missing of course are Kuiama, some of the more experimental pieces off their debut album, and most of the best stuff off of On the Third Day.

Still, it's a nice introductory selection. But as I mentioned, this album is long out-of-print and these songs are all available on their respective studio albums. Chiefly for collectors and ELO completionists, but I'll still give it three stars because it's a fairly good selection.