ELO, or the Electric Light Orchestra as they honestly thought anyone would write out, has two songs everyone knows- an instrumental called "Fire On High" and that song where they really don't want Bruce to upset them. Apparently they wrote entire albums of music that might be worth listening to. Or maybe just one in the case of my Big List. Or maybe none, depending on how I feel about it.
"Turn to Stone" sounds like the following all at once: 70s rock crossed with disco, played by a small orchestra along with synthesized video game music and a hint of ABBA. I'm impressed how balanced the various elements are- ELO or their producers are obviously master sound mixers. The vocals are consistently multi-tracked harmonies. The base band features piano, bass, drums, organ, synths, and light guitar backed by strings. Somehow the music doesn't sound crowded, with one piece of the band trampling over the other.
There's a backing part to "Across The Border" that sounds like a mariachi band. At first it feels out of place in a typical ELO spacey disco-esque rock tune, but I got used to it. I'm not sure I completely accept it, but ELO sure gets credit for trying something completely different and exploring the possible fusion of mariachi, rock, and disco.
"Jungle" is slightly off-kilter and far more annoying than the preceding tracks. All the praise I gave to the earlier songs for keeping things smooth and in balance don't apply here. I recognize the melody and rhythm of the refrain from another song that I don't know the name of. It's that song that goes, "Do ya do ya want my love?" I wonder which band swiped it from the other. (UPDATE: Turns out the song I was thinking of is called "Do Ya" and is by... ELO! <facepalm>)
"Standing In The Rain" delves into nerd rock, but I'm guessing unintentionally. Most of it sounds quite lovely (and pleasantly dated) but the stacatto refrain and vocoded lyric passages just feel so nerdy. "Big Wheels" keeps a few of the nerdy touches but introduces a deep and dark chorus that kinda creeped me out listening to it. Not in a bad way really... the best sci-fi from the 70s featured elements that were a bit unsettling. ELO at least on Out Of The Blue should definitely be classified as some form of sci-fi rock.
"Summer and Lightning" starts out sounding like a Peter Frampton tune, and it also has a short segment in the middle that follows the cadence of "The Joker" but the melody is slightly different and is played on an 8-bit synth. The result sounds more like another song I can't clearly bring to mind. Maybe someone can help me with this...
"Mr. Blue Sky" is another song everyone should recognize but most people think it's a Beatles song. I forgot it existed until it came up during the running of Out Of the Blue, but it's obvious that most people would mistake this for a Beatles song if they ever heard it without knowing who ELO was. It kinda makes me imagine a version of "Martha My Dear" if that song had appeared on Abbey Road instead of The Beatles.
I was a bit shocked when the album appeared to abruptly end after "Latitude 88 North". It's a decent enough song, but kinda hokey. Given how epic in scope other parts of the album were it seemed like something of an arbitrary place for it to stop. So I checked online and discovered the last 3 tracks on the Rdio version are in fact bonus tracks added to the album in 2007. So I kinda missed the appropriate end point, which was supposed to be "Wild West Hero." That track is a bit more epic, but still feels like a flat closer.
That aside, Out Of The Blue was excellent. I didn't even mind that it was a bit on the long side. It moved pretty quickly and held my interest throughout, and it didn't even feature the 2 songs I instinctively know as ELO and really like. I'm gonna do something I haven't done in a little while and give Out Of The Blue 4 stars.
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