Electric Light Orchestra

Discovery

Disco - Very

Review Score:

(4/10)
If you are just starting out on dicovering ELO, this is not the album to begin with. You probably know the album's best tune, "Don't Bring Me Down," but if you don't know the rest of the album, don't expect the other tracks to live up to that one. While "DBMD" is good rocker with the kind of great melody that we had come to expect from Jeff Lynne by 1979, the rest of the album falls short. By this time, burn out was settling in and Jeff was losing his ability to come up with decent melodies. One listen to the chorus of "Shine a Little Love" or the verses of "Last Train to London" will clearly illustrate this. In addition, with this album, Jeff decided it was time to jump on the disco bandwagon - a fad which was already beginning to fade by the time of the album's release. In many cases on this album, the sound and production values became more important than the music and the songwriting suffered as a result. Fortunately, time has healed this wound and the new ELO CD "Zoom" is a welcome return to form for Jeff as a first rate songwriter. If you want to dig back into the 70's and hear some good examples Jeff's ability to write a great tune, then check out "Out of the Blue" or "Eldorado". Jeff was at his peak as a pop songwriter on these records. If you want to hear what Jeff can do when he decides to tackle longer epic works, then check out the brilliant "Electric Light Orchestra II" (ELO's 2nd album from 1972 - not one of those bogus Electric Light Orchestra Part 2 albums from the 90's). Jeff took rock 'n' roll places it had never been before with ELO 2, only to quickly change direction on the next album. "Discovery" is unfortunately, quite a disapointment compared to any of the ELO albums the preceded it.

More Reviews: