Electric Light Orchestra – Out of the Blue Review

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A crowning achievement in any discography is a song which will transcend the album it is from. For better or worse, when it comes to documenting Electric Light Orchestra with just an image and a song, it will be the artwork for Out of the Blue and Mr. Blue Sky. The best album they made? Probably. Their best song? Not a chance. Out of the Blue follows on from the remarkable work Jeff Lynne and company provided on A New World Record and makes a splash with confident, jazz and prog-like efforts. Long and sprawling songs with sprinklings of sci-fi, all tied together with tremendous efforts on the keyboard from the late Richard Tandy. It sounds effortless. One of the great joys of Out of the Blue is the seamlessness of its quality.  

Written with a sudden surge of creativity from Lynne, the recording process and eventual results are truly remarkable. One of the finest achievements in UK music – at a push, the world. One to slot into the best albums of all time lists. Just take a listen to Turn to Stone, the album opener and a beautiful reminder of how pop and rock and roll can go hand in hand. Just a year on from their previous, exceptional album and Lynne, like a man possessed and a pen on fire, provides some of the most memorable tracks of the decade. A perfect A-Side. Turn to Stone is the punchy opener the band needed and follow-up It’s Over brings out the orchestral part of the band, layering some sweet and heartbreaking lyrical points. The passage of summer and the perils of slipping into autumn have never sounded so chilling. Pair it with essential track Sweet Talkin’ Woman and Across the Border and early signs of improvements on A New World Record can be heard. 

Where their sixth studio album had the makings of a complete piece unable to be fragmented, Out of the Blue is just as strong in isolation as it is with the rest of the songs supporting it. Feel the buzz in the air of Across the Border. What Out of the Blue does so well, so consistently, is bring in new instrumental thrills while maintaining a similar set of rules to its core parts. Lynne is stylish in his performance here, with high pitches hit and thrills backed by the tight string sections and acoustic guitar additions found throughout. Forget Mr. Blue Sky, it is an incredible song but when lined up with the heavy-hitting album pieces, preceding tracks Big Wheels and Summer and Lightning, it is easy to kick it out of the best bits of this album.  

E.L.O. is simply electrified here. Possessed by a perfection few bands will glimpse, let alone rattle out across three years as Lynne and the gang did on their follow-up, Discovery. Palatable radio pop with plenty of instrumental layers making up for pockets of writing not quite up to scratch. Rare those moments may be they are certainly in there. Nothing skippable but Night in the City is retreading old ground early into the album. A defining album of the period where Lynne tries to express everything he has learned over the decade prior. He does well to capture the essence of E.L.O. across a tight album which still defines the band to this day, and rightly so.