Out Of The Blue (studio album)
by Electric Light Orchestra

The album feels overly long, overproduced, and ultimately quite empty. There’s a constant barrage of sounds, layers, and information, but very little that truly sticks. It comes off as glossy and polished, yet lacking substance.

To be fair, there are a few undeniable hits in there. But the record is uneven, with several tracks that have strong verses but weak choruses—or the other way around.

It seems tailored for a specific type of listener: someone drawn to catchy hooks, simple melodies, and a touch of sophistication in the arrangements, all wrapped in a fairly conventional package.

Personally, I didn’t find much to really hold onto or get excited about.

Side 1 and Side 2 are simply incredible with every song in that initial run being amongst some of the best the group has created. All the songs on those sides flow nicely from one to the next and the music feels cohesive and focused. The music feels rich, grand and important with Jeff Lynne putting in a stunning vocal performance to match the brilliant instrumentation. The songs are just so infectious and the group definitely know how to write lyrics that will get stuck in your head. Then there is Side 3 and 4 which is considerably weaker in terms of its quality despite having two of the greatest ever ELO songs on there. Mr. Blue Sky and Sweet Is The Night are probably my two favourite tracks they have ever made but it doesn't save this half of the album. While the music does still feel grand it just doesn't hit as well as the first half and a lot of the songs feel like filler. Also, due to the length of the record it really does start to drag when you get to the final three songs and I argue that The Whale can be skipped entirely and you don't really lose anything. Overall, the album doesn't maintain the consistency it needs to be up with the greatest albums ever but it is still an elite level record full of enjoyable and fun tracks making it one of my favourites to revisit.

Nearly perfect

I like this album similarly to A New World Record. However I think that the best tracks on here are better than on its predecessor, simultaneously ANWR was more compressed and had not that much filler.

Bad tracks on this album? I don't hear any. All bangers, no filler

A long time ago this was one of my favorite albums. Mr. Blue Sky is probably one of the greatest songs ever. However, over time it feels a little dated. Even today it is painful trying to listen to the whole album vs. the 1/2 dozen songs on here that are top notch.

From Jboy56 12/21/2021 14:42 | #277748

I feel that ELO is not for me. At places, it feels that the songs are similar to the overproduced ( Spector style) orchestral and choir sound mattress. The production and sound are so stuffed that there is no time for the listener to breathe, it lacks air. The ELO sound is very compressed and it lacks dynamics.

Genre wise ELO is all over the place and most of the songs do not rock at all, albeit having many catchy hooks.
A double album is always a bad choice for a listener or even for the band, with one sitting muchness and amount of music is not easy to overcome. Actually, only a few double albums have ever succeeded musically and an unavoidable amount of redundant material remains, like here.
I bet not very many will listen to this album regularly the whole way through, put some songs to the mix list and that might work well.

This comment is beneath your viewing threshold.

From dihansse 03/09/2021 20:51 | #267146

1977 was the year of many classic metal albums (Let There Be Rock and Cat Scratch Fever were my favorites then), it was of course also the year Punk came crashing in with full force (too many albums to name) and you even had some albums you could call postpunk (Marquee Moon, Blank Generation and even '77). But what is sometimes forgotten is that 1977 also spawned a number of the greatest classic rock albums ever. There was Animals, there was Aja, there was Rumors, there even was Bat Out Of Hell (don't shoot me, am I not allowed to have a guilty pleasure?). And there was this album which I loved to death at the time and of course of that very expansive Mr. Blue Sky. It's a double album so there are surely some stinkers here but boy what a gem of an upbeat album.

From StefanR10 12/04/2020 21:04 | #261986

Just like the Beatles were reunited in the 70s