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Electric Light Orchestra
A New World Record
It all started here. This was the first ELO album - in fact, the first rock
album - ever given to me; my older brother introduced me to this one on 8-track
when I was around five or six years old, and it pretty much set the pattern.
Having only heard some of my mother's easy listening records and the only album
I truly had to my own name - John Williams' Star
Wars soundtrack - I immediately gravitated toward this rock music
that sounded like it had a heavy-duty soundtrack incorporated into it, and I
have favored that kind of music since. That could, in fact, best describe the
kind of music I love the most - something that, if it never has been played by
any sort of classical instrument, sounds like it could easily translate to that
medium and sound majestic. Where this album specifically is concerned, though,
it contains one of my favorite rock songs of all time, Mission (A World
Record), a very unusual, dark piece of music with mournful lyrics that seem
to be sung from the vantage point of aliens observing life on Earth. Most
people will be more familiar with this album's singles, Telephone Line,
Livin' Thing, Rockaria! (another favorite, a humorous hard rocker
that pays tribute to several classical composers) and Do Ya. This is my
favorite ELO release from the 70s, and is at the top of my DNP Album
List - truly a Damn Near Perfect Album.
- Tightrope (5:03)
- Telephone Line (4:38)
- Rockaria! (3:12)
- Mission - A World Record (4:26)
- So Fine (3:55)
- Livin' Thing (3:31)
- Above the Clouds (2:17)
- Do Ya (3:44)
- Shangri-La (5:34)
Released by: Jet
Release date: 1976
Total running time: 36:20
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