Electric Light Orchestra – Discovery
For me, this is ELO’s low ebb, the point at which they pretty much hit bottom. But I suppose nearly every band must have come close – even the Alan Parsons Project broke into an embarassingly disco-esque boogie in the middle of “The Voice” from their 1977 album, and so ELO was bound to go disco, however briefly. Sadly, it seems to be this phase which everyone remembers, consigning ELO to a fate of forever being relegated to Hits of the 70s! collections. “Last Train To London” is just about my least favorite ELO song of all time – it’s got good bass work, and that’s really all I can say in its favor. “Don’t Bring Me Down” is okay, though I preferred the later version played by the group live, which transformed the 
song from another miserable disco tune into a real rocker, and “Shine A Little Love” is only marginally better. So is there anything good about Discovery? Well, yeah, at least a couple of things. “Confusion” and “Need Her Love” are good songs, while “Wishing” is pretty much average ELO. I can’t really recommend this unless you, like myself, happen to be an ELO fanatic/completist.
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- Shine a Little Love (4:42)
- Confusion (3:43)
- Need Her Love (5:12)
- The Diary of Horace Wimp (4:17)
- Last Train to London (4:33)
- Midnight Blue (4:19)
- On The Run (3:56)
- Wishing (4:14)
- Don’t Bring Me Down (4:02)
Released by: Jet
Release date: 1979
Total running time: 38:58
This was the first hint of the studio-polished Enz as well as the first glimpse of a much heavier, more electric sound to come. When this album was recorded, things were not going well for the band – they were stranded in England, broke, and shortly after their studio sessions, their instruments and equipment were lost in a fire just before a concert date in support of the new album. The resulting frustrations and tensions are evident on the music, which is harder-hitting all around. Neil Finn begins to make his voice 
This album begins with the first two songs written and performed by Tim Finn and Phil Judd, then known, along with a handful of comrades, as a new all-acoustic band in New Zealand called “Split Ends” (also the title of one of those songs). The very sparse sound present in most of the band’s first singles – gathered here on one album a few years after the fact – is haunting, particularly the mysterious “Spellbound”, the rather sad “No Bother To Me”, and the hysterical “Sweet Talking Spoon Song”. As the album goes on, the 
band gets more electric and employs more studio know-how, but it’s all identifiably Split Enz and makes for teriffic listening. In the case of “Spellbound”, this early version is considerably superior to the later version on Mental Notes in its simplicity! And the sound of Te Awamutu had a truly sacred ring. 
album justice. It rocks hard, it has a couple of good ballads, and one of the bonus tracks sounds for all the world like it would’ve made a good number for Otis Redding had he written and recorded it. A most undeservedly obscure treasure!
