ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 70 ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA - OUT OF THE BLUE (1977)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Artist: Electric Light Orchestra

Album: Out Of The Blue

Producer: Jeff Lynne

Band Members: Jeff Lynne/Bev Bevan/Richard Tandy/Kelly Groucutt/Mik Kaminsky/Melvyn Gale/Hugh

                         Hugh McDowell/Louis Clark

Singles: Turn To Stone/Mr. Blue Sky/Wild West Hero/Sweet Talkin' Woman/It's Over

Favorite Single: Turn To Stone/Sweet Talkin' Woman

Favorite Album Cut: Big Wheels/Summer And Lightning

Most Likely To Skip: Jungle

Album Cover: 10/10

 

This week's album is Out Of The Blue by ELO.  It's the band's seventh studio album and it hit number 4 on the US and UK charts.   It is a double album and it featured 5 singles, 4 of which hit the UK and US charts.  Jeff Lynne wrote most of the album while in the Swiss Alps.  He composed side 3, which is a concerto, made up of individual songs tied together by a common them, which was the weather.  It rained a lot, and the rain sound effects were real and actually recorded there.

 

I like the whole album, but if I was gonna skip a whole side it would probably be side two.  Otherwise, it's a very complete album, very typical ELO.  Of course, it is a companion album to Zoom, which is featured by Jon in this week's Lost/Forgotten album segment.

 

The album art is awesome.  It was done by a group named Kosh, and was supposedly tied to the Star Wars and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind  movie fever.

 

Did You Know: This album had 4 million copies pre-ordered. 

 

Next Week: An American classic.

 

Side One:

1. Turn To Stone

2. It's Over

3. Sweet Talkin' Woman

4. Across The Border

 

Side Two:

5. Night In The City

6. Starlight

7. Jungle

8. Believe Me Now

9. Steppin' Out

 

Side Three (Concerto For A Rainy Day):

10. Standin' In The Rain

11. Big Wheels

12. Summer And Lightning

13. Mr. Blue Sky

 

Side Four:

14. Sweet Is The Night

15. The Whale

16. Birmingham Blues

17. Wild West Hero

[Scott]

Hope this doesnt get lost in the shuffle...  This is a great album!  Ive owned it in various formats since its release.  These songs were all over radio and were the sountrack to some very important years of my life.

 

This was ELO at their peak, at least as far as the buying public was concerned.   If I had to fuss about one thing it would be that it can sound over produced at times.  But overall nothing should be skipped...

[RJhog (Admin)]

And your favorite non-single is????

[Scott]

Night In The City and/or Birmingham Blues

[Jon]

It's is an allright album. Seems to be a bunch of filler to me, but I'm not the HUGEST ELO fan out there. Gotta love "Turn To Stone" though, that song is crankable. Weird thing is that I have 2 copies of this on CD. One still wrapped if anyone is interested....

[Niels (Mod)]

For free??

[Jon]

No not for free..will trade. If it's Kiss albums, it would be four Kiss albums for this one album. Everything else would be 1:1. That's how I roll.

[Niels (Mod)]

EXCELLENT music!! I only have a double greatest hits album by ELO, but I would love to have bought a few "real" albums back then, but at that time, this was the kind of music my sister was playing, while I was plastering my walls with KISS-posters.

I once read, that if the Beatles had continued making music in the 70's, it would probably had sounded like a cross between ELO and Supertramp, and I kind of agree.

Most of the songs, I've heard before, and tracks like "Sweet Talkin' Woman" are GREAT, but I don't think I've heard songs like "It's over" and "Steppin' Out" before, and they are pretty good too!! It's been YEARS since I last heard "Across The Border" and "Jungle". Great tracks also!!