Out of the Blue: 30th Anniversary Edition

Out of the Blue: 30th Anniversary Edition
Label: Sony
Length: LP
Release Date: 2007-02-20
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Out of the Blue: 30th Anniversary Edition
Say what you will about the music of the late ’70s, there’s no denying how great a musical year 1977 was. Besides stunning punk debuts like Never Mind the Bollocks, Pink Flag, The Clash and My Aim Is True, the post-bicentennial calendar was filled with dozens of other amazing releases: Rumours, Love Gun, Exodus, Bat Out of Hell, Trans-Europe Express, Slowhand, The Grand Illusion, Chic, Cat Scratch Fever â?¦ the list goes on and on. Among that array of tall-standing records, though, the very best is Out of the Blue, the double-LP set from Electric Light Orchestra. Yes, it’s better than the Sex Pistols and better than Exodus, and that’s a fact to come to grips with. Perhaps not more influential, perhaps not more groundbreaking, but in the strictest sense of the word ‘betterâ?� ‘ ‘of a more excellent or effective type of quality,â?� according to my dictionary ‘ it most certainly is. Seventeen songs spread across four sides of vinyl, Out of the Blue represented the pinnacle of ELO-meister Jeff Lynne’s ability both to write the perfect pop song (see ‘Mr. Blue Sky,â?� ‘Sweet Talkin’ Woman,â?� ‘Night in the Cityâ?�) and to commit that song to tape in a manner that maximizes its impact. Subtlety was never Lynne’s strong point ‘ ‘Orchestraâ?� is part of the name of the band ‘ and Out of the Blue is the least subtle album ELO ever made, its earworm hooks delivered in broad, gut-punching strokes that make you feel as weightless as the flight crew of the Roomba-esque spaceship on the album’s cover. Animal sounds, string parts, Moog and Mellotron effects combine with Lynne’s magisterial approach to songwriting to make an album that, were it released by an un-broken-up Beatles, would have been hailed as their masterwork. Yet the Beatles’ catalog continues to be deified, and the baton-carrying work of Jeff Lynne and ELO has been unjustly relegated to the end of sentences that start with ‘The bloated sonic approaches of the decade such as â?¦.â?� Well, some 30 years after its release, this (barely) expanded and (perfectly) remastered edition makes the solid case that ELO’s legacy shouldn’t be dismissed so lightly.

This article appears in Feb 21-27, 2007.