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Old 10-16-2021, 02:44 PM   #10 (permalink)
Trollheart
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It's pretty much nonsense really. Did the crawling ones ever use violins or cellos? Did they compose any concertos? Any concept - well, okay, but you know what I mean. When the Police hit they too were touted as "the next Beatles". It's all hype based on nothing more than a limited frame of reference for music, like how every new metal band can be described as "the new Iron Maiden" or "the new Metallica". ELO never wanted to be the "new" anything: they were unique and I believe took pleasure in being unique, in bringing classical music to the ears of people who might never have heard it otherwise, and into the mainstream of music and the charts. Sure, bands like ELP (no relation duh) and The Moody Blues did that too, but other than one major hit for the latter you couldn't really say either did anything for mainstream music. ELO did. Who can forget the cello (violin? Never sure) intro to "Livin' Thing" or the superb "Concerto For a Rainy Day" which gave way to superhit "Mister Blue Sky"?

In terms of albums, I bought them as follows (number in brackets is my rating as to how high they are on my list as essential albums)

Out of the Blue (1)
Discovery (3)
A New World Record (7)
On the Third Day (9)
Face the Music (6)
Eldorado (2)
Xanadu (11)
Time (4)
ELO (10)
ELO 2 (12)
Secret Messages (5)
Balance of Power (13)
Zoom (8)
Alone in the Universe (Haven't heard yet)
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