THE BEST OF ELOY VOL. 2 - THE PRIME 1976-1979

Whereas the sister Eloy compilation The Best Of Eloy works as a seamless album The Best Of Eloy II is slightly disjointed. One reason for this might be that each of the three albums from which this compilation draws its material is a concept album with three distinct styles and concepts (although conversely I felt no such problems on the earlier compilation which also featured music from the concept album The Power And The Passion).

Another interesting aspect about The Best Of Eloy II is that the group was completely reorganised between The Power and The Passion and its successor Dawn, with only lead singer/guitarist Frank Bornemann remaining. The loss of keyboardist Manfred Wieczorke was soften by the arrival of the equally talented Detlev Schmidtchen, although I'm one of those who (marginally) prefers the earlier rawer Eloy sound.

The pieces from Dawn include Awakening which is basically the sounds of thunder and a string-laden pseudo-classical intro to the excellent Between The Times, a song that builds up from a moody acoustic verse intro a monster hard-rock riff "What do you know, my son?" sings Bornemann and I swoon! I also really love the bottom heavy solo segment that smack of classic 70s hard rock ... it's a great, great song. The Sun Song is basically an atmospheric ballad that I can take or leave while The Midnight Fight/The Victory Of Mental Force is a return to Eloy's strength's with some nice riffs and changes, but the usage of string synths instead of the muscular organ work that Eloy would have employed in the past weakens the song for me.

Decay Of The Logos is a fantastic piece of music, with powerful vocals, great interplay between the rhythm section and a fine synth solo, but I really feel it needs to be listened to along with the rest of its parent album Ocean, not as part of this compilation.

The pieces off the Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes also work better as part of their parent album than as part of this compilation. With its spacey synths and sparse, biting lead guitar Astral Entrance sounds shockingly like a portion from Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond suite. It segues into the brilliant Master Of Sensation which is probably my favourite latter-day Eloy song. Despite a modern (for 1979) synth sound, it bears some of the hallmarks of classic Eloy with my favourite Bornemann vocals, a monster synth solo from Schmidtchen, and nice interlaced rhythms. This compilation concludes with the three part epic The Apocalypse, which again has multi-layered spacey synths, extended guitar solos, thankfullly a bit of organ as well ... the final part has Schmidtchen challenging Vangelis, Eno and the Tangerine Dream lads (I mean Schulze too) as the space synth king but while it's pretty cool, it's not what I really love.

Ultimately a true-blue Eloy fan will want all the albums, but while The Best Of Eloy I does a great job of compressing the essence of Eloy from 1972-1975 on one CD, I feel that the albums from the 1976-1979 period have to be enjoyed on their own. ... 64% on the MPV scale

This was actually the first release by Eloy I bought, had no idea what this band was about, so then it's not a bad idea to start with a compilation. The first 5 songs were good but not too spectacular but then there were two to go and I can say they were really overwhelming where the compositional quality was concerned. These two (Astral entrance and Apocalypse) are real classics, it's what real prog is about, great symphonic tracks with lots of transitions, really how I like it best. So I was convinced of the class of Eloy, bought many albums after this one, some really great but I never heard anything like the two classics again. Two exceptional highlights, that's for sure. Because of this I give it 4 stars.

Just like with "Chronicles II" (versus "I"), "Eloy" released a weaker compilation with this "Best Of 1976-1979" than with their previous attempt which was covering their most psychedelic period (72-75).

This work compiles three albums. The first being "Dawn". A concept album with lots of instrumentation which was not really my cup of tea.

I understand that it might be difficult to choose songs from a concept and put it on some sort of "best of". But taking "Awakening" and "Between the Times" was not a good idea. Vocals are dreadful and the latter is a collage of four insipid parts "Between the Times", "Memory Flash", "Appearance of the Voice" and "Return of the Voice" for a total of just over six minutes.

Fortunately " The Sun Song" and "The Midnight Flight" have not been forgotten. But IMO, the best song of this album was "The The Dance in Doubt and Fear". Invisible here. I must be dreaming!

They would have been more inspired to have featured a song as "Atlantis' Agony" than the weak "Decay Of The Logos" from their very good "Ocean" album. As if space on a CD costs additional money...This compilation is short enough to have allowed this swap. It would have been a benefit for the ones who are willing to discover this period of their career and get one of their very good song available here.

The band will even repeat the very good "The apocalypse" from the excellent "Silent Cries..." on both compilation efforts. OK, on "Chronicles" it was a shorter and a re-reworked version, but still...The second best from this album is also featured. It is a clone of "SOYCD" but a very pleasant trip into "Floyd" 's repertoire.

I would recommend more the casual listener to get hold of "Ocean" and "Silent Cries" to have a better idea of what the band has released in those days; rather than buying this compil. Not that it is a bad one, but due to the track selection it is too limited (and there was additional space to use to avoid this).

Three stars.

A nice cheap pick up with the best of three of Eloy's most impressive albums is a great starter kit for those new to Eloy. The three albums represented are masterpieces in their own right and it is odd to hear them out of context jammed onto one album, but it is no less a pleasant experience as the songs hold up on every listen. As soon as that killer riff begins on Between the times, from "Dawn", I am hooked. The vocals of Frank Bornemann are like an old friend as I have grown so used to them and he is in his element here.

After the four wonderful "Dawn" tracks we move to the incredible "Ocean" album. The song represented on this compilation is 'Decay of the logos'. My favourite track from "Dawn" is this choice with a grand intro, pulsing bass, and incredible atmospheres including howling wind. The terrific singing backs up a powerful structure of melodic themes and soloing. The main melody is well executed and again grows on me with every listen.

The next album represented is the brilliant "Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes" with the dreamy 'Astral entrance / Master of sensation' and then followed by the masterpiece suite 'The apocalypse', all 14:53 of it! It is absolutely mesmirising music, the best of Eloy undoubtedly. This music moves me so much and stirs my soul on every listen. I can't get enough of it, the music is all brilliant, so this compilation deserves 4 stars in my opinion.