Album Title
Electric Light Orchestra
Artist Icon Out of the Blue (1977)
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First Released

Calendar Icon 1977

Genre

Genre Icon Progressive Rock

Mood

Mood Icon Carefree

Style

Style Icon Rock/Pop

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Release Format

Release Format Icon Album

Record Label Release

Speed Icon Sony BMG Music Entertainment

World Sales Figure

Sales Icon 10,000,000 copies

Album Description
Available in: Country Icon Country Icon
Out of the Blue is het zevende studioalbum van de Britse rockgroep Electric Light Orchestra, uitgebracht in 1977. Het album is geschreven en geproduceerd door ELO-frontman Jeff Lynne en is een van de meest succesvolle albums van de band.

Jeff Lynne schreef het hele album in drie en een halve week na een plotselinge vlaag van creativiteit terwijl hij verbleef in een chalet in de Zwitserse Alpen. Het duurde nog eens twee maanden om het album op te nemen in München. Snel na het uitbrengen van Out of the Blue bereikte het album een multi-Platinumstatus. Het bracht vijf hitsingles voort en is ELO's commercieel succesvolste studioalbum. Ook was het in het Verenigd Koninkrijk het eerste dubbelalbum ooit waarvan vier top 20-singles afkomstig waren.

Kant 3 van de originele dubbel-lp bestaat uit Concerto for a Rainy Day, vier nummers die samen een symfonische suite vormen, met als thema het weer.

Lynne beschouwt A New World Record en Out of the Blue als de belangrijkste prestaties van de groep en beide albums verkochten zeer goed. The Daily Mirror Rock and Pop Awards (voorloper van de Brit Awards) verkoos Out of the Blue tot album van het jaar in 1978. Jeff Lynne ontving voor het album zijn eerste Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contributions to British Music in hetzelfde jaar.
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User Album Review
Still rather wrong-headedly regarded as a ‘guilty pleasure’ (thanks Sean Rowley), Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra were quite simply a gigantic pop hit machine. Oft-derided as a mere Beatles copyist, Lynne’s genius was to take his earliest ambition of recreating the rush felt when first hearing ‘’I Am The Walrus’’ and achieve it, again and again.
The formula was simple (and in this he was far from being alone in the early 70s) ”“ to weld pure rock melody with classical stringed grandeur. When the idiosyncratic fellow ex-Move member Roy Wood jumped ship, Lynne began his rise to chart domination. Over the space of five years and six albums Jeff refined the sound in his head.
By 1976’s New World Record (their finest moment) he’d achieved world status and was now the master technician of the four-minute chamber pop format. By 1977 he had only one way to go ”“ bigger and grander. But, as his sleevenotes recall, holed-up in the Swiss Alps he found inspiration slow in coming.
Finally the muse returned, in spades. So much in fact that Out Of The Blue became a double album. Increased budgets fitting the band’s status meant that the sound was now as big as it could get (for the time). Multi-layered EVERYTHING pours out of the speakers, almost drowning you in lushness. Considering how good it sounds buffed-up for digital consumption, it’s amazing that these tracks sounded so amazing on tinny old AM radio. The album yielded four enormous hits.
Of these, ‘’Sweet Talkin’ Woman’’ remains Lynne’s most perfect hit. From its George Martin-homage string intro to the massed acoustic guitars, it’s a rollercoaster of sweetness. These days, of course, everyone hails ‘’Mr Blue Sky’’ as his magnum opus, yet its wild construction shows the first sign that Jeff was trying a little too hard.
The rest of the album remains a solid, if somewhat bloated romp through concept-lite AOR. Dotted with bubbling ‘modernity’ in the shape of Richard Tandy’s synths (‘’The Whale’’) and childhood reverie (‘’Birmingham Blues’’, ‘’Wild West Hero’’), all wrapped in a suitably sci fi sleeve. ELO would never repeat its successes, and to this day Out Of The Blue remains an essential purchase for anyone wishing to bask in their pop perfection.


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