The way the legend is told, it took Jeff Lynne some time to properly align his project with his imagination. It wasn’t until this, his fourth album, that the Electric Light Orchestra actually used an orchestra in its recording. The result is ELO’s first great record. While Lynne’s songcraft and pop mastery have always been apparent, the addition of an orchestra brought the lushness that would make ELO legendary.
I’ll admit: in the several years I’ve owned and loved it, I never realized that Out of the Blue was not ELO’s most acclaimed record. Longest, most ambitious, and most impressive, undoubtedly. But best? This is a question I never knew I had to ask before, but A New World Record, their breakthrough, is bringing that to the forefront.
Strange that as long as I’ve loved ELO’s Out of the Blue, I’ve never considered looking into any of their other albums. What a fool I have been! While not as refined as the symphonic pop of Out of the Blue, Face the Music showcases a Jeff Lynne with an absolute mastery of pop songcraft in a variety of genres.
So how exactly do you follow up a record that should go down in history as one of the greatest of all time? If you’re Grizzly Bear, you double down. Shields digs deeper into the elements that made Veckatimest great, with stellar results.
If the future is kind to Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest will be remembered alongside Pet Sounds and Abbey Road as one of the most perfect records of all time.
What is pop music? Is it vapid, unchallenging, artless? Few would make an argument that most pop music is not those things. But can pop be more than that? Can pop music be ambitious? Sophisticated? Enduring? Jeff Lynne and his Electric Light Orchestra make a certainly convincing argument for that stance on their magnum opus, Out of the Blue.
The years between 2007 and 2011 were rather significant for Justin Vernon, the man behind Bon Iver. His debut album had been picked up by a label, and launched him into international (indie) stardom.
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After Justin Vernon came out of his cabin in the woods with his solo debut, he also came out of the minimalist confines that the instruments in his solitude offered him. Blood Bank EP is meager in tracks, but rich in content.
I will say it right now: Magical Mystery Tour is my favorite Beatles record.
I will also say that “my favorite” and “the best” are different (the best is yet to come).
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