Electric Light Orchestra – Out Of The Blue
You have to be in the mood for ELO, and a whole lot of ELO at its most ELO-esque, if you’re going to absorb this entire double album in one sitting. This album contains the singles “Turn To Stone”, “Sweet Talkin’ Woman” and “Mr. Blue Sky”, three of the best ELO singles ever to hit the airwaves. Some of the best album tracks also come from this one as well, including “Starlight”, one of the best songs ELO ever recorded. Don’t ask me why, but my favorite Jeff Lynne compositions show their 50s-retro roots quite audibly. Also included are “Jungle”, a song that sounds incredibly silly on the surface but is appealing all the same; “Standing In The Rain”, keyboardist Richard Tandy’s most jaw-dropping performance (and this was years before MIDI, children); the rough-edged Birmingham Blues (about the band’s home town – England, not Alabama); “Summer And Lightning” and “Night In The City” (two of the very few songs in which every possible good clichè of ELO’s sound converges), and one of my favorite instrumentals, “The Whale”. 
Some would argue that this is the last time ELO really sounded good, and that’s not entirely untrue. Out Of The Blue also marks the beginning of ELO’s most commercial phase of existence; the adventurous ELO of old didn’t return until 1981.
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- Turn To Stone (3:47)
- It’s Over (4:08)
- Sweet Talkin’ Woman (3:48)
- Across the Border (3:53)
- Night in the City (4:01)
- Starlight (4:26)
- Jungle (3:51)
- Believe Me Now (1:21)
- Steppin’ Out (4:39)
- Standin’ in the Rain (4:21)
- Big Wheels (5:05)
- Summer and Lightning (4:14)
- Mr. Blue Sky (5:05)
- Sweet is the Night (3:26)
- The Whale (5:02)
- Birmingham Blues (4:23)
- Wild West Hero (4:42)
Released by: Jet
Release date: 1977
Total running time: 70:12
Though it contains one of the two songs most everyone thinks about when the name 10cc comes up, this album is pretty much average. “The Things We Do For Love” has earned its classic status, but there are other great songs on this album, including the wonderfully beautiful but offbeat ballad “People In Love” and the very strange and well-produced “Honeymoon With B Troop”. (Well-produced in this case meaning that the effects and acoustic treatments used on various voices and instruments are absolutely perfect given the song’s subject; and it’s just so weird, ya gotta love it!) But there are some simply average tracks, such as another well performed and produced track, Feel the Benefit, which is an attempt at emulating the epic-scale structure of such pop medleys as the Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers” / “Carry That Weight” / “The End” that comes across as just that, a smaller-scale copy. Most of the album is pretty good, though; and it comes from that remarkable convergence of talents that seemed to take place all around the same time; 1977 
brought us this album with one of 10cc’s biggest singles, ELO’s Out Of The Blue, Alan Parsons’ I Robot, The Rumour’s Frogs, Sprouts, Clogs & Krauts, John Williams’ Star Wars soundtrack, and many others – at least in my book, 1977 seems to have been a musical flashpoint. 
“Well,” I thought, “that’s nice, it’s in the bargain bin.” Then I did a slight double-take. “What? This is new, and it’s already in the bargain bin.” This meant trouble. The fading remnants of my favorite band were fading really fast if their new release, even though it is a live album, was entering the music store shelves at rock-bottom. And I found out why (that’s the great thing about bargains, eh?). This is, at best, an excessively mediocre live album. Years later, in 1996, I saw ELO Part II perform live when they made a stop in my home town of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and I discovered that ELO Part II does a kick-ass live show, just not on this album. Perhaps the improvement in their live repertoire is that they’ve expanded their selection of post-ELO originals, which are better suited to their live performance needs because they know what they’re capable of on stage. This album is comprised entirely – with the singular exception of “Thousand Eyes” – of classic ELO songs which people have come to know with a full string section. The Moscow Symphony can deliver the goods most of the time, but even they have their off nights, as can be heard when somebody hits an outrageously, painfully flat note in the 
Beethoven intro to “Roll Over Beethoven”. I think as ELO Part II expands their repertoire of original tunes, their live show will only get better and better, as the new songs are tailored to the new group’s strengths. In fact, I keep hearing about a new live album called One Night which has yet to make it to the States, and I’d love to hear it, because, even though this album fell seriously flat, ELO Part II really brings the house down live. 
If you’re going to vomit from hearing about the Fleetwood Mac album with “Don’t Stop” on it, maybe you’d better move along to the review of Mirage. Actually, I’ve always thought “Don’t Stop” and “Go Your Own Way” are both overplayed and overrated. Of much more interest to me is the classic early Lindsey Buckingham material (specifically “Second Hand News” and “Never Going Back Again”) and the fact that I actually liked Stevie Nicks’ songs on this album. I can’t tell you how much I do not like 