Jeff Lynne is going to have a very busy day October 9 with the release of two new albums via Frontiers Records.
Jeff Lynne
The first, Long Wave, features his versions of standards that influenced his love of music at an early age. The second, Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of the Electric Light Orchestra, contains new recordings of some of Lynne’s biggest hits with the iconic group.
Lynne said of the standards album “I call this new album Long Wave because all of the songs I sing on it are the ones heard on long wave radio when I was a kid growing up in Birmingham, England. These songs take me back to that feeling of freedom in those days and summon up the feeling of first hearing those powerful waves of music coming in on my old crystal set. My dad also had the radio on all the time, so some of these songs have been stuck in my head for 50 years. You can only imagine how great it felt to finally get them out of my head after all these years.”
As far as why he wanted to go back to the Electric Light Orchestra catalogue, “There was a big reason I wanted to re-record these ELO songs. When I listen to the old versions they don’t sound the way I thought they did when I first wrote and recorded them. I wanted to use the experience I’ve gained producing records ever since and have a completely new try at them. I’m not saying the old versions aren’t good; I like them very much. We were doing our best, but experience and technology also play a big a big part, and these new ones sound much more solid and tight.”
The album includes a never-before-heard bonus track, “The Point Of No Return,” and a very special version of “10538 Overture” that’s a nod to ELO’s 40th anniversary.
Track List:
Long Wave
- She
- If I Loved You
- So Sad
- Mercy, Mercy
- Running Scared
- Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
- Smile
- At Last
- Love Is A Many Splendored Thing
- Let It Rock
- Beyond The Sea
Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of the Electric Light Orchestra
- Mr. Blue Sky
- Evil Woman
- Strange Magic
- Don’t Bring Me Down
- Turn To Stone
- Showdown
- Telephone Line
- Livin’ Thing
- Do Ya
- Can’t Get It Out Of My Head
- 10538 Overture
- The Point Of No Return
