Is it Discovery <\/i>or the anagram equivalent Very Disco<\/i>?\u00a0 That must have been the question Electric Light Orchestra fans must have been asking themselves back in the K-Tel days of 1979. <\/p>\n
Turns out that while this was a slight departure from the band\u2019s typical formulaic sound, it was a gamble that proved to be successful. This is definitely one of the those albums that takes a few spins to fully sink in, which is pretty strange considering this is one of ELO\u2019s most mainstream efforts. Each song is easy to digest on the surface, but when taken together, its probably the densest material the group has ever recorded.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
In fact, most of the singles released from Discovery <\/i>are among the most forgotten in the band\u2019s catalog – \u201cConfusion?\u201d \u201cLast Train To The one hit that more than made up for those lackluster songs is \u201cDon\u2019t Bring Me Down.\u201d\u00a0 Not only did it outperform the others on the charts (going all the way to #4), but it became their biggest hit of their career. \u201cDon\u2019t Bring Me Down\u201d is the hardest-hitting rocker the band had attempted, seemingly sounding as if it was to be their greatest achievement;\u00a0 the thunderous, foot-stomping track is where all the individual pieces of the band came together in the best possible way, showing the rock world what ELO was capable of. <\/p>\n For those uninitiated in the world of music (as I was back in 1979), Discovery <\/i>can be seen as a very appropriate album title. Hell, back then I didn\u2019t know that other groups existed beyond the Osmonds! While the Discovery<\/i> album may have not set the world on fire by any means (barely cracking the Top 5), it did help Electric Light Orchestra to cement its position as one of the most popular acts of the decade. With the ever-present blend of strings and keyboards, Discovery <\/i>was the most overt attempt to be as radio-friendly as possible. <\/p>\n Aside from the fact that \u201cShine A Little Love\u201d and \u201cLast Train To London\u201d are virtual carbon copies of each other, the album captured the mainstream flavor of the disco era without causing their fans to scream \u201csell out!\u201d in the process. If Tony Manero ever decided to ditch Jeff Lynne\u2019s distinctive and underrated voice is showcased best on the several ballads that can be found on Discovery<\/i>: \u201cNeed Her Love,\u201d \u201cMidnight Blue\u201d and \u201cWishing.\u201d\u00a0 These heartbreaking tunes provide a nice balance to songs like \u201cDon\u2019t Bring Me Down\u201d and the delightful story song \u201cDiary Of Horace Wimp,\u201d which is about a hapless chap who doesn\u2019t have much luck with the ladies.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Wrongly dismissed as \u201csynthetic schmaltz,\u201d ELO has some of the strongest melodies you will ever lay your ears on.\u00a0 Real songs (which are all but extinct in these underwhelming days of hip-hop) are what talented musicians like Jeff Lynne live for. If there is one album that says, \u201cLook out 1980s, here we come,\u201d this is it. <\/p>\n To paraphrase good ol\u2019 Horace Wimp, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid\u2026just knock on the door.\u201d The Electric Light Orchestra will always be there waiting for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":28587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6624],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-40061","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-electric-light-orchestra","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40061"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}