Entertainment For Lively Minds
Best of ELO
Posted by GunsOfBrixton on 14 November 2009 - 9:42am.
What with all the respect for ELO coming from Pugwash & The Duckworth Lewis Method I decided to check out some of their early stuff to see what it was like. My memory of them growing up was that it was considered as "music for people who don't like music" especially by young people with punk/new wave leanings like myself.
Having said that "A New World Record" is a seriously good record. Is this their best or should I check out any others?
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here is a spotify playlist for you
If you like A New World Record you will love Eldorado Face The Music and Out Of The Blue Time is also worth a punt.
http://open.spotify.com/user/marbles22/playlist/5r4hXvBjTe8TavX2JOTFCG
you've pretty much
summed it up there - agree that 'Time' is an underrated and too often overlooked album.
an influence
Time is the primary influence on Grandaddy's The Sophtware Slump, and a production influence on the Flaming Lips from Yoshimi onwards. Ironic, considering it's ELO's version of Living In The Plastic Age (Buggles) & Vienna (Ultravox).
Agree with all of the above. The run of LPs from Eldorado through to Time, including the much-maligned Discovery, are all fantastic. A New World Record benefits from packing a lot of ideas into a short running order, making it the best bet.
Can't argue with that
ANWR is scary, in that every track could have had a serious shot of being a top 10 single. Several of them were of course. I adore Tightrope particularly: it's just that fade in and fanfare before getting down to serious business.
It went downhill after Time of course, though (whisper it quiet), I think Secret Messages has four tracks on it that compare favourably with anything they ever did. Bluebird and Four Little Diamonds, for example, are just top stuff.
Some people describe them as a "guilty pleasure". Bollocks. Why be guilty about some very good songs, realised well?
Secret Messages
I bow to no-one in my admiration of that LP. However, strictly for devoted fans. The spooky weirdness of that album, the weird incidental sounds, and of course the deleted tracks that surfaced later, make it an interesting item. You could stick Letter From Spain into the middle of the latest Flaming Lips CD and you would struggle to notice it was by a different band. It seems to be a Lynne solo album and it makes you wonder what he was going through at the time (boredom maybe?)
But if you want the 'classic ELO' sound then this is not the place to find it...
Letter From Spain
always feels like a companion piece to Telephone Line to me. Subject matter is faintly similar as far as I can see. Lovely song though.
Thanks
I'm just listening to it now. Shangri-La - what a song!
I'd also stick
Do Ya on there. Alright, technically it's a Move song, but Lynne wrote it and by the time of Message From the Country they were effectively ELO anyway. The MFTC version is pretty damn good, but the ANWR version is even better.
I'd dispute that
as Roy Wood was still onboard
Well
the last incarnation of The Move for Message From The Country was, by Wood and Lynne's own telling, basically ELO by way of line up.
Same difference really.
ELO/Move
Seem to have co-existed for about a year, along with Roy Wood's solo recording and various other projects. It would be an interesting article for the mag to describe what was going on during this time.
Looking On (Move's third LP) is also basically an ELO record. It even has cellos. Not as good as Message though.
ELO?
ELO?
*Shakes head*
As for the Duckworth Lewis Method - words fail me
ELO...
Great pop songs, absolutely dire Wall of Sludge™ production.
I've always struggled with Jeff Lynne's productions
It's the 'Wall Of Jeff Lynne Vocals' that I don't like - it's just *too* distinctive and smothers everything he produces.
have to disagree Partrick
I think the production is fine and some of the string arrangements are awesome still 30 years on
Sky Arts 1 tonight
9-10:05pm ELO live from Wembley Arena 1978
A shout for zoom
not on spotify but still had some great tracks on it although virtually a solo Jeff Lynne album
I really wanted to like it
but it has never really engaged me, I'm afraid, even after several attempts. I don't actively dislike it, it just doesn't light a fire for me.
As for Lynne solo albums, I actually rather liked Armchair Theatre. Maybe I'm just a touch perverse.
Zoom
It's got elements of the ELO sound, but has more in common with the 'fans only' Secret Messages as discussed above. Moment in Paradise is a great song, and Jeff's voice seems to have matured nicely on the evidence of this album. Armchair Theatre is more fun though, and quite hard to find these days.
I'm sure I read an interview where Lynne considers Out of the Blue to be his finest hour.
Funnily enough...
I was listening to some ELO on Spotify a week or two ago, before this thread started. I was a huge fan, and had everything between the third album and Time. Some of it sounds great, some rather dated. I'd give two thumbs up to the title song from Eldorado, though, still very stirring. I remember A New World Record being my favourite at the time, must give that another listen.