Jeff Lynne’s ELO: Live in Hyde Park Blu-ray delivers great video and solid audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
In September 2014, Jeff Lynne s ELO headlined BBC Radio 2 s Festival In A Day in London s famous Hyde Park. It was the first time in almost 30 years that the band had performed on a festival stage. The 50,000 tickets for the event had sold out in a matter of minutes and the fans sang along to hit after hit performed by Jeff Lynne and the band accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra.
For more about Jeff Lynne’s ELO: Live in Hyde Park and the Jeff Lynne’s ELO: Live in Hyde Park Blu-ray release, see Jeff Lynne’s ELO: Live in Hyde Park Blu-ray Review published by Jeffrey Kauffman on September 16, 2015 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
Jeff Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra managed to chalk up one Number One single in several foreign markets, but one of their singular if
dubious achievement in the United States is the fact that they're the record holder for having the most Top 40 hits of any band that has never
hit Number One. Lynne's often intricately layered harmonies and unusual chord changes have tended to defy cateogrization, to the point that
even Lynne appears to be slightly loathe to call himself any one thing (as evidenced by the really interesting biographical documentary included
on this Blu-ray as a supplement). Jeff Lynne's ELO Live in Hyde Park has Lynne and some crack musicians, including the BBC Concert
Orchestra, gliding through a nice assortment of favorites and a few lesser known tunes. The string section helps to beef up the symphonic
aspect, and Lynne and backup vocalists Melanie Lewis-McDonald, Mick Wilson and Iain Hornai manage to do an effective job of recapturing
some of the densities of the original ELO recordings.
Jeff's set list for the concert is:
1. All Over the World
2. Evil Woman
3. Ma-Ma-Ma Belle
4. Showdown
5. Livin' Thing
6. Strange Magic
7. 10538 Overture
8. Can't Get It Out of My Head
9. Sweet Talkin' Woman
10. Turn to Stone
11. Steppin' Out
12. Handle With Care
13. Don't Bring Me Down
14. Rock 'n' Roll is King
15. Telephone Line
16. Mr. Blue Sky
Jeff Lynne's ELO Live in Hyde Park is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Music Group and Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock
Entertainment, with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. The concert spans late dusk to dark night, and as things gets darker some of the
lighting choices feature anomalies like posterizing and banding, especially when the cameras are aimed squarely at some of the rigging on stage.
Despite this, when lighting is at the side of or behind the performers, there's excellent detail and fine detail, and not even the pointillated screen
projections in the background offer any problems in terms of resolving without issues like moiré. Lighting choices again tend to affect how
"natural" things look (some of the yellow tones give the band a jaundiced appearance), but overall this is an appealingly sharp and well detailed
presentation.
It might seem positively counterintuitive that music as multilayered, even stratified, as Lynne's is wouldn't receive a multichannel presentation on
Blu-ray, but there's a telling quote from Jeff himself in the accompanying insert booklet which "reveals" all: "It's important to me that viewers
experience the Hyde Park show exactly as it was performed on the night. . .in stereo." Now some may want to quibble with that presentation of
what the audio experience in Hyde Park actually was that evening, but the score above reflects what's actually on the disc, namely an
LPCM 2.0 mix, rather than what might have been on it. The stereo mix sounds a bit muddled at times in the mid to lower midranges, a
place where Lynne tends to like to voice his keyboards and even guitars, as beds for the lush vocals resting from that range upward. That said,
generally speaking this is a clear and well defined presentation that certainly is extremely well mixed for a stereo offering, with excellent
prioritization given vocals.
Interview (1080i; 14:56) finds Lynne discussing his career and the excitement of returning to live performance.
Mr. Blue Sky (1080p; 1:20:05) is a feature length documentary about Lynne and ELO, and for some fans at least may be as much of
a
calling card for this release as the actual concert.
While the concert is great, some audiophiles are no doubt going to be upset that there's no lossless surround track on the disc (and in fact
there's no surround track whatsoever). That perhaps problematic element may be offset by the general geniality of Lynne and company during
the concert, not to mention the really excellent documentary which is also included, one which attempts to reassess Lynne and his contributions
to popular music. Taken as a whole, this release comes Recommended.
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On September 11, 2015, Eagle Rock Entertainment, in association with the BBC, will release Live In Hyde Park by Jeff Lynne's ELO on Blu-ray. This release offers fantastic value with a full-length concert and feature-length documentary on the same disc.
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