Electric Light Orchestra

ELO's biggest seller, this contains such essential hits as soft rock wonders "Telephone Line" and "Beyond the Clouds," the insanely good orch rocker "Livin' Thing" and the unstoppable "Do Ya," which plays like a dream meeting between ELO, fellow Beatles fanatics Cheap Trick and Thin Lizzy. Its mix of crunchy guitars, no-nonsense rock and grandiose strings is flat-out amazing. This remastered edition offers some bonus mixes and the previously unreleases "Surrender" (a keeper).

Eat your diploma, Eric Carmen--after years of floundering, they've gone all the way and made a Moody Blues album with brains, hooks, and laffs galore. My fave is "Rockaria!," about a lass who "loves the way Puccini lays down a tune." Granted, I initially thought it was strictly for those who got off on music appreciation in high school, like the lass. But now I think it's also for those who hated it, like me. (Grade - B+)