August 3, 2006 by A.S. Van Dorston

I was a closet ELO fan. By the time I was in high school in the 80s, I figured my relationship with ELO was over. They were the ridiculously uncool band with bad haircuts, overblown production and spaceship concert stages destined to be a forgotten relic of my childhood. Little did I know that they would resurface twenty years later in the form of a commercial and a couple movie soundtracks (Donnie Brasco and both Buffalo 66 and Eternal Sunshine On A Spotless Mind featured “Mr. Blue Sky” in their trailors). The Delgados also covered that song. Suddenly it seemed everyone came out of the closet as ELO fans, and their influence was heard from The Flaming Lips to Super Furry Animals. Even Pitchfork gave a recent ELO compilation a good review.

Out of the Blue (1977) was the first album to totally blow my nine year-old mind. ELO edged out Queen as my first obsession, inspiring me to scrounge for money like a crack addict to buy more of their records. In a case of accidental good taste, the first two albums I ever bought were Gary Numan’s The Pleasure Principle and Talking Heads’ Fear Of Music, based on the singles “Cars” and “Life During Wartime.” However, the albums’ coldness and paranoia were a little over my head. Out Of The Blue was perfect for a kid my age, with cartoonish imagery of spaceships and jungles, a big sound that wasn’t too dissonant, with simple Beatlesque melodies. And the animals sang, “Wonderous is our great blue ship that sails around the mighty sun and joy to everyone who rides along.”

A New World Record (1976) was more concise and catchy, but less ridiculously joyous. I had a compilation of their first five albums, Ole ELO and Face the Music (1975), but they seemed drab in comparison. Just today I picked up the 2001 remaster of Eldorado (1974) and heard it for the first time in its entirety. It holds together fairly well as a concept album, and the orchestral arrangements sound fabulous. It’s ELO at their most serious, and almost tasteful, but it’s not their best, as some have said.

I remember being disappointed by the Bee Gees disco style of Discovery (1979), aside from the rocking single, “Don’t Bring Me Down.” It seemed to be the beginning of their decline. But to my surprise and delight, ELO proved me wrong on the soundtrack to Xanadu (1980). In this awesome movie about the daughters of Zeus and Hera in velour shorts and rollerskates (hey, I was going to Skate Country almost every week!), the muse sisters emerge, disco-skating, resplendent with rainbow light trails from a mural on a brick wall, electrifyingly set to ELO’s “I’m Alive”. The guy smitten with the Olivia Newton John muse then pursues her to Mount Olympus to the tune of “The Fall.” “All Over The World” wipes the floor with KC & the Sunshine Band’s “Celebration” as the ultimate joyful party anthem. “It’s A Lie” and the title track complete one of ELO ’s most consitently great album sides. ELO were still at peak powers.

Time (1981) was the first album I nearly had heart failure in anticipation. Even the dorky clerks at the record store/headshop The Asteroid were excited about the new ELO album. As soon as I saw the cover, I was fluffed. The liquidy art resembled the science fiction books I’d been reading. I sensed it would be the most groundbreaking, futuristic album ever. Hearing the robot voice introduce the record (“I have a message from another time”) send shivers of excitement down my spine as intense as anything I’d experience (at least while I was still a virgin). The ringing synthesizer and drumroll that introduced “Twilight” got my heart pounding. It would be one of my favorite songs for months to come. The cool, burbling computer sounds that introduced “Yours Truly, 2095” were mindbending. It was about a love affair with a robot, which coincidentally parallels the theme of Rudy Rucker’s early cyberpunk classic “Software” that was also published in 1981. “She has an IQ of 1001/She has a jumpsuit on/She’s also a telephone.” Three tracks in I’d decided Time was the most awesome album ever. In fact I think I wrote my first ever review saying as much, in order to convince friends to check it out. While the rest of the album didn’t really hold up and I quickly outgrew ELO, I remember attending a hipster party about eight ago at Steve Albini’s old house and discovering Time in the collection. I hadn’t heard the album in over 15 years, and put it on. It sounded pretty great! Half the guys at the party ended up bonding over ELO. A friend from college obsessively performed and recorded the album in its entirety with his band.

Since then, I picked up the first album, No Answer (1972), which is weird and creepy in a good way, but sounds like a different band. A New World Record is scheduled for a reissue in September, remastered with bonus tracks. Out of the Blue should follow later in the year.

Posted in: Reviews