All Over the World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra

Electric Light Orchestra bandleader Jeff Lynne always had an obsession for crafting perfect pop by pairing classical music instrumentation with rock ’n’ roll songwriting and glacier-sized hooks. His love of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Roy Orbison was always apparent. (Of course Lynne later produced and worked alongside his heroes George Harrison, Dylan, and Orbison in The Traveling Wilburys.) His heavily layered yet in-your-face production style pushed the era's recording technologies, and there was nothing else like it on the radio. He and his ELO bandmates never thought small. This collection rounds up the best of their '70s and early-’80s output (minus “Can’t Get It Out of My Head”) and then some, from the finely wrought pop and cascading strings of “Living Things” to the synth-thickened call-and-response “Sweet Talkin’ Woman” to the teary-eyed classic pop of “Telephone Line,” and the ’50s throwback “Rock and Roll Is King.” And you swear the Fab Four enter the room on the stirring opener “Mr. Blue Sky,” but there’s no escaping the dark undercurrent on “Strange Magic.” It’s a one-stop ELO shop.