and here it is. This was originally reviewed by me in the first few weeks of my re-joining the forum, way back in 2011.
Out of the Blue (1977)
One of the first albums I ever owned,
Out of the Blue was a huge success when it was released, garnering five hit singles from the double album, the most famous of which of course is the almost-chart-topping “Mr. Blue Sky”. The album was composed entirely by founder member and creative force Jeff Lynne, was their seventh studio release and marked the end of their proper progressive rock and orchestral leanings which had been evidenced on earlier albums like
El Dorado and
Face the Music. The next album, another huge success, Discovery, took the band in a whole new direction, so in many ways
Out of the Blue marks the end of a particular period in the band's history, and a subtle sea change in their musical aspirations.
Odd, really, when you think about it. This was their most successful album to date, and yet two years later ELO would release
Discovery, a total departure from the sort of music featured here - while still retaining the classic ELO sound - which would go on to spawn yet more hit singles! You would think the old adage “If it ain't broke don't fix it” would apply, and yet that's exactly what they did. They had a hugely successful album, hit singles aplenty, and then they went and changed their direction for the next album, and THAT ended up being mega-successful, too! Could these boys do no wrong?
But to concentrate on this album, which starts off with a fade-in to the first track, a fast, boppy and very commercial number, “Turn to Stone” was the first single released from the album, and features the by-then famous multi-vocals that were the trademark of ELO. “It's Over” is a sparse, tense ballad, equating a love affair with the passage of summer - feeding in almost instantly to the overall theme of side three of the album, the weather. It begins with the end section of “Mr. Blue Sky”, again from side three, and it runs into the next single, “Sweet Talkin' Woman”, introduced on a violin opening before it takes off as a poppy and commercial song, perhaps continuing to explore the theme of the previous song, as Lynne searches for the woman (the “sweet talkin' woman”) he lost in that song. “Across the Border” is a song written very much with the intention of conveying the impression of a steam-train, again with violin intro and kicking into a Spanish/Mexican theme which pulls the song along at a decent pace, with a real sense of urgency (
”I gottta get that southbound train tonight!”) and ends with a thunder of drums and keys that sounds just like a train rocketing past.
On the original album (yes, I know, here comes Grandad again!) this was the end of side one, and side two begins with the sounds of traffic merging with an orchestral tune-up as “Night in the City” gets underway. You can also just hear, if you're nerdy enough, the end strains of the opener, “Turn to stone” merging into the first few bars. It's followed by “Starlight”, a nice, breezy little tune with some really nice keyboard, and thence into “Jungle”, which is enjoyable nonsense, with its African beats and its silly story about animals that can talk.
The orchestration ramps up then for “Believe Me Now”, a very short (less than a minute and a half) piece, mostly taken up by dramatic, powerful and stately music, with Lynne singing the only lyric through a vocoder right at the end, and that segues directly into “Steppin' Out”, another ballad which rides along on an electric piano line with violin, but is then orchestrated, with more vocoder work and a reprise at the end. And so side two of the album, and record one, comes to a close.
Side three is taken up by a full symphonic composition, lasting in total over eighteen minutes, and broken into four movements. It's called “Concerto for a Rainy Day”, and the four parts are linked by the central theme of weather, and how it affects people. Opening with simple tinkling piano, a weird vocoder part naming the concerto and then (as might be expected) the sound of rain, and crashing cymbals to denote thunder, the first movement is called “Standing in the Rain”, and is sung with some urgency, as Lynne laments waiting out in the downpour:
”Standing in the rain/ Getting soaking wet/ I'm doing my best/ But what do I get?” The orchestra really comes into its own on this, and throughout the concerto, leading into the second part, “Big Wheels”, a slower, more restrained effort, still backed by the sounds of rain falling, and again using the “Mr. Blue Sky” theme to introduce itself, with more vocoder speaking the words “Big wheels, keep turning...”
The mood of “Summer and Lightning” brightens as the weather begins to clear, and though we can still hear rain as the third movement progresses, it is getting lighter, until finally it is gone altogether, and the final movement, and one of ELO's biggest ever hit singles, “Mr. Blue Sky” brings the concerto to a glorious finale with its upbeat, happy, joyous celebration of sun and the summer. It's probably a good bet that just about everyone knows the song, but what I didn't know for years was that at the very end, as the orchestra winds down and the finale is played out, the vocoder message right at the very end says “Please turn me over”, and not as I had believed for decades, “Mister Blue Sky why”, or any variation on that. It is in fact an instruction to flip over the record and hear side four. Clever, but the idea will have been completely lost on today's kids... turn
what over??
There's little doubt that “Concerto for a rainy day” marks the highpoint of the album, and although it's not quite all downhill from there, the final side contains not too much of interest, besides the clever and evocative instrumental “The Whale”, and the closer, another hit single, the quite brilliant “Wild West Hero”, with its cowboy themes and horsey sound-effects.
For nerds like me in the late seventies, this was one of THE albums to have. It was double, so expensive. It had the concerto on it, so you could feel superior to the kids listening to the likes of the Sweet or even Thin Lizzy, and it had one hell of a cool gatefold sleeve. Even listening to it now, over thirty years later,
Out of the Blue has stood the test of time, and whereas many ELO records now sound somewhat dated, the technology and themes on this album, and the way it was produced and put together make it seem years ahead of its time.
It's such a pity they went disco after this...
TRACK LISTING
1. Turn to Stone
2. It's Over
3. Sweet Talkin' Woman
4. Across the Border
5. Night in the City
6. Starlight
7. Jungle
8. Believe Me Now
9. Steppin' Out
10.
Concerto for a Rainy Day
i) Standing in the Rain
ii) Big Wheels
iii) Summer and Lightning
iv) Mr. Blue Sky
11. Sweet is the Night
12. The Whale
13. Birmingham Blues
14. Wild West Hero
Rating: 9.9/10