Electric Light Orchestra-- A New World Record (1976)

Review by Nickolas Cook

To say convey what a significant impact this album had on my childhood is almost impossible.  I colored how I looked at music for the rest of my life, to say the least.

And one can almost draw a direct line from them to my love for groups like Radiohead.  They both treated tradition as a springboard for individualism and testing the waters of experimentalism in mainstream music.  

In the 70s, there was no other band that was doing what Jeff Lynne and crew were doing.  They had taken the odd orchestral bits from the classic Beatles catalogue and turned it into a new style of rock and roll music.  And they were huge.  Gold and platinum albums followed one upon the other, as US and UK listeners eagerly awaited the next sci-fi concept album.

But within all this new age, sci-fi, string and electronica experimentation, Lynne was writing songs about loneliness, lost love, and emotional isolationism in that 70s age of free love and disco music.  His hooks were catchy, but it was the lyrics that kept people coming back for more.

With ‘A New World Record’, all of those elements seem to gel to create something bigger than the individual parts.

There are no bad songs, and many of them lead logically right into the next one.

The stirring use of classical music as bridge, as hook and as end note are inspired and no band has yet to top what these guys could do with a couple of violins, cellos and a keyboard.  It is sublime and beautiful, while remaining uniquely rock and rolla.

Track Listing:

1. "Tightrope"

2. "Telephone Line"

3. "Rockaria!" 

4. "Mission (A World Record)"

5. "So Fine"

6. "Livin' Thing"

7. "Above the Clouds"

8. "Do Ya"

9. "Shangri-La"

--Nickolas Cook