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Finding the perfect ELO album is like trying to outrace two trends moving against each other in time. ELO's earliest records (which I personally very much like) are afflicted with a heavy dose of art-rock-pretension, which took several albums to fully wear away. Their later records, however, veer into flippant, silly pop, chirping backing vocals, and stereotypically disco-y string and bass lines.
Functioning consistently through all of this are the exceptional compositional talents of front man Jeff Lynne. Lynne's talent remains greatly underrated because it often surpassed his taste: sometimes you want to grab the man by his lapels and shake him: What is up with this pompous choir droning in the background? Do you really need those falsetto exclamations throughout the chorus? On ELO records, there's a lot that can embarrass the fan.
But if there is a perfect ELO record, this would be my nominee. This is the one in the sweet spot: the sweet spot that marries well-trained pop sensibilities with enough virtuouso classical allusions to carry much more of interest than in other pop music.
Actually, I think this record's immediate predecessor, Face the Music, might be more in the "sweet spot" than this one, in a certain sense. Eldorado was definitely on the art-rock-pretension side of the line, and this one, in my view, veers ever so slightly into the too-pop side. Face the Music is just at the right place. The "problem" is that A New World Record (and Eldorado, in my opinion) just has better songs than Face the Music. I think it's the best record that they ever put out.
I still have vivid memories of the first time I spun this record. I was in a puppy-love relationship in 8th grade, and my love interest was a fan of the song "Livin' Thing," then receiving airplay. I listened to it a few times on the radio, thought, "that's interesting enough," and bought the record.
Till then I had been mainly a Beatles fan; very little else in pop music had inspired an interest in owning. But when I put this record on, my jaw dropped: It starts with one of ELO's trademark spaceship keyboard effects, which glisses down into a stern and very classical-sounding melody on the lower strings. Then the mood shifts again, to a jaunty, jostling pop rhythm. I remember thinking; What the hell is this? I had never heard so many musical styles played seamlessly and well in such a brief auditory space.
The thing that makes this record better than all the rest is that Lynne is really at the peak of his powers here as a composer and producer. He writes very accessible melodies, but it's not the trite pop that they would record from Out of the Blue onward. The melodies are always surrounded by facile manipulation of other musical elements entirely. You have a leader here who is showing off his musical chops, but much less visibly than on On the Third Day or even Eldorado.
I find myself, as I listen to this record, marveling at Lynne's evocative compositional skill. For example, you have moments at the beginning and end of "Above the Clouds" that are straight out of some 1930s film soundtrack, it seems. It sends me to the piano trying to determine how exactly those chords were assembled.
Similarly, there's a middle section in "So Fine" (a very strong up-tempo number) that seems to combine African drums, with the strings joining pseudo-woodwinds in a unison melody. So different from everything that previously occurs in the song, but it somehow meshes perfectly.
It's not always done with sufficient restraint and taste. The album end, for example, is unforgivably over the top. Yet. . . somehow you do forgive it, because the broken chords that lead into it a truly gorgeous, almost like a new and improved Bach.
The album's big hits -- Telephone Line, Livin' Thing, and Do Ya, all sound much better here than on context-less radio. But every single song on the record is excellent. So Fine and Above the Clouds are particular favorites of mine (the latter is a jewel), but Shangri-La has an exceptionally lovely melody.
Just a fantastic record. Jeff Lynne deserves far greater recognition for the genius that he was.
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