Electric Orchestra - Out Of The Blue

I want to take a minute to write about how much I appreciate Electric Light Orchestra and Jeff Lynne. This post is specifically about their 1977 double album Out Of The Blue. By the time this record came out ELO were already superstars all over the world. They had had a string of hits that quickly had them playing on radio stations everywhere; hits like "Evil Woman", "Can't Get It Out Of My Head", "Fire On High" and so many others raised the anticipation level for Out Of The Blue practically through the roof.

By this point Jeff Lynne was so adored that the individual members of the Beatles were all calling him to ask him to produce their records, even going as far as to say that "If the Beatles had not broken up they would have gone on to sound just like ELO". That's some crazy stuff. Fortunately Jeff Lynne delivered the goods in a huge way.





According to wikipedia, "The album had 4,000,000 pre-ordered copies and quickly went multi-Platinum upon release. Out of the Blue spawned five hit singles in different countries, and was ELO's most commercially successful studio album."

Every song on this album is a masterpiece. The production is incredible, the lyrics are brilliant, the harmony vocals are impressive, the string parts are all great and the effects on songs like Standin' In The Rain, Turn To Stone, Night In The City and Sweet Talkin' Woman were all state of the art at the time of this album's release. Basically, this album was the hottest thing on the shelves when it was released and anyone who owns this record can still be proud to display it at the very front of their collection - for quick reaching.

My favorite moments on this record are: The bass vocals on the song It's Over (try singing them!), the "she's gone so long, what can I do?" section in Sweet Talkin' Woman, the "24/7 just left funk gate 11" section in Night In The City, The tap dancing break in Jungle, the build up of Standin' In The Rain (this song is way too intense! it needs some slamming power chords), the long, dramatic, dragged out outro of Mr. Blue Sky and Wild West Hero's A Cappella section! (I know some pretty serious guys who can weep at this song).