Jeff Lynne’s ELO: Live in Hyde Park Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Jeff Lynne’s ELO: Live in Hyde Park Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 16, 2015

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 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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.

Jeff Lynne’s ELO: Live in Hyde Park Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

Jeff Lynne’s ELO: Live in Hyde Park Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• 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.

Jeff Lynne’s ELO: Live in Hyde Park Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.