release date: Oct. 1977
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,06]
producer: Jeff Lynne
label: Jet Records - nationality: England, UK
7th studio album by Electric Light Orchestra following one year after the breakthrough album A New World Record and like that produced by primary songwriter and leader of the band, lead vocalist Jeff Lynne. The band has gone through various line-ups but maintained a quite numerous members list, and here they count seven (three of which exclusively play violin and cello). The band has evolved from playing primarily experimental progressive rock with bonds to symphonic rock and hard rock and through a stage with baroque pop to eventually play progressive pop with bold use of elements from funk and disco - and needless say: with a much more evident mainstream appeal.
I recall this very album from when it wasn't all brand new but they still hadn't released the successor Discovery (May 1979). In Feb. 1979 (at age 13) I happened to be in London with our school class, and several class mates purchased the predecessor and this very album that I only knew little about. I remember buying albums with The Police (Outlandos d'amour and Regatta de blanc), Pink Floyd (The Wall) and Dire Straits (the debut) and a few others that I have now forgotten about - alongside a handful of releases for my older brother. Unfortunately, I didn't yet know anything to the existence of punk rock or new wave at this point - that only came to my attention upon my return later that year, so I was more into music that I already knew of, and especially heavily inspired by my brother's music taste (except The Police). But what I soon learned was that I didn't like Electric Light Orchestra one bit! In fact, I loathed the disco and progressive pop harmonies that my class mates soon praised as the new big thing alongside Patrick Hernandez, Kelly Marie and Bee Gees.
The album is included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" as the only by ELO, as they were commonly known. Out of the Blue is the band's second consecutive Platinum-selling studio release, which eventually was surpassed in sales numbers by Discovery and Time (1981). The only reason I have put it here is that I wanted to revisit an album I really never understood. And still don't, it turns out! From the aforementioned book: "Released at the height of disco, Out Of The Blue was seen by some as a futuristic fish out of water." As much as I relate to that picture, it's probably not in the most positive of ways. To me, this is awkwardly over-arranged. Waaaay too much funk and disco, and not just that but with so many synths and strings that it should belong in space. And it makes me think of a musical wedding cake: Mostly impressive and nice to look at, but who really wants to consume that?! In my ears it doesn't fall far from the ABBA and Olivia Newton John melody structures that I disliked then as I still do to some minor degree nowadays. I have definitely grown much milder when it comes to polished pop of the 80s and 70s, and I do understand the qualities of a lot of music that I didn't like at a younger age, but ELO from '76 and onwards still doesn't do much for me. "Mr. Blue Sky" was a hit but would never have seen the light of day without The Beatles and The Moody Blues. "Turn to Stone" was another major hit back then - at least in Europe - but to me that was, and still is, a pastiche - a conglomerate of songs by artists suchs as Giorgio Moroder, Hot Chocolate, Earth, Wind & Fire merged with some Stevie Wonder-arrangements and equal parts of 10cc smoothness - all artists I'd rather listen to than this fine musical mish-mash that remains far from distinctive original.
Out of the Blue is still a cornerstone in the discography of Electric Light Orchestra no matter what I think of it, but I'm not in a position where I feel that I should actually recommend it. If asked back then, I would most likely have handed it 1 or max 2 stars - basically, suggesting it was crap, so in that respect I have come (much) closer in accepting it as genuine acceptable music. It's still over-produced, over-arranged and it didn't do much good for music, imho. But hey, wasn't I into punk?! And punk rock was in many ways a response to exactly this kind of music, and I still do understand the reaction and need to change music as it was back in the mid-70s.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, Rolling Stone, The Guardian 3 / 5 stars ]
