Record Rummage (US) – 34: Electric Light Orchestra

It's weird. I hated this band with a passion during the 70s. By the time the 90s rolled round, however, I loved 'em - coupled with the discovery towards the end of that decade that they make perfect driving music, bar none. Anyhow: remember this was originally written in a drunken haze. Why I didn't give this a 'perfect' 10 is beyond me. Maybe it was the lack of a spaceship mobile?

ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA
Discovery
(Jet, 1979)
We chose this one over Out of the Blue because a) we’d already bought that one seven times from second-hand stores and b) we couldn’t find a copy with a spaceship mobile. So, Discovery. Major hit factor alert! Given that this is their seventh record, you’d think they’d have been all washed up, but oh my God! It’s very difficult to keep “Confusion” to an acceptable volume level late at night. We once attempted to put together an ELO tribute album, and so badly wanted Evan Dando to cover “Diary Of Horace Wimp” it hurt. ELO soundtracked the second scariest car ride we ever took—through impenetrable fog on the South Coast of England at night with assholes behind tailgating us for 65 miles. This album makes us feel full and synthetic like an inflatable ball. It builds and builds to close out the second side with the epic, plodding, momentous crescendo that is “Don’t Bring Me Down”. Like everything ELO touch, the inner sleeve is classic — four stunning black and white portraits of the band at work, set off by a most fetching blue Moorish mosaic round the edges. The gatefold outer adventure sleeve, for some reason, is set in the Sahara. Oh, we get it. Discovery. There’s also a merchandise flyer featuring four most gnarly babes completely decked out in ELO-ware. Rockin’.
Cost 46 cents. Bargain value: album 5, slip cover 4