GREATEST HITS LIVE, PART II: THE ENCORE COLLECTION

The first thing I should point out is that the title is a bit misleading: The "Part II" section of the title does not hearken back to any "Greatest Hits Live, Part I," but to the line up actually being Electric Light Orchestra Part II, meaning there is no Jeff Lynne on stage. The "Greatest Hits" business is also misleading, since half the songs on this record are not. None of that stops the album from being fairly decent live recording. The production is refreshingly clear, and the band is well-rehearsed. My opinion of the album is mixed: Half the album consists of strong and faithful versions of the originals. The ones that suffer are "Do Ya" (the band skips half the song), "Evil Woman" (the performance is incredibly weak), "Livin' Thing" (could have been recorded on a cheap cruise), and the last three songs on the album were weak compositions to begin with. The highlights are "Telephone Line" and "One More Tomorrow;" the latter has some great soulful guitar work and beautiful orchestration. In a nutshell, the album declines in likeability as it progresses. One should pick this up if one is a fan of ELO or live rock music in general.