What Are You Listening To?

[CRAZY-HORSE]

ELO "discovery" 1979. vinyl and cd #1Aust, #1UK, #1US

Lennon once said, that had the Beatles survived into the 1970s,they would have sounded like ELO. and to some extent,he may well have been correct, as ELO borrowed a lot of their sound and melodies from them and addapted it to create their own individual sound.
that may well have been true up to 1978, but with "discovery" there were elements of disco also, nost noteably in "shine a little love" and "last train to london", "confusion", "need her love", "the diary of horace wimp" are very Macca,Lennon and Beatle sounding respectively.
"midnight blue" is a beautiful ballad, "on the run" and "wishing" have all the hallmarks of classic ELO, and the final track "dont bring me down" is a fusion of all the above elements combined to make one of the great singles from the 79/80 period.
according to Jeff Lynne the album was made up on the spot in the studio, he used the same set of four chords in the construction process and sang whatever came into his head with only slight alterations throughout.
all in all, this is a very good album with no dud tracks.

I LIKE THIS ALBUM

worst track: shine a little love
best track: dont bring me down

tracks:

1. shine a little love** #14Aust, #10UK, #8US
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8qRMe5VUAM live
2. confusion** #8UK, #37US
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ogpxaaQ9o0 video
3. need her love**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6NymWR7eUg video
4. the diary of horace wimp** #48Aust, #9UK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0UVneQtnhQ video
5. last train to london** #8UK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v6MBHpzZg8 video
6. midnight blue*** #48Aust
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F71soGRAqC0 video
7. on the run**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sErqZGhMZ7g video
8. wishing**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb1PQA6gEXI audio
9. dont bring me down*** #6Aust, #3UK, #4US
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFZGXvGGcfw live

3s=2
2s=7
1s=0

rating 2.2