Though all of ELO's albums, at least through 1979's DISCOVERY, are excellent examples of vista-rich pop songcraft, the 1990 box set AFTERGLOW is a handy condensation of the group's enormous catalogue into three excellently remastered compact discs. AFTERGLOW is an excellent set, though it only lightly details the band's early years with co-founder Roy Wood (only two tracks, including the fantastic "10538 Overture," are included from the first LP) and skip's the band's underrated contributions to the soundtrack of the flop film XANADU. Discs one and two cover the band's years of megastardom and include all the classic hits. Disc three details the less commercially successful though still artistically impressive '80s records, and the high points nearly match up to the better-known earlier tracks. Jeff Lynne's layered arrangements and flawless production were simply made for CD sound, and the songs sound even better than they did in the '70s.
