Like many things, what we think of as '80s production values came and went gradually. Very few albums from '81, the year Time was released, really have that sound. It wasn't until '84 or so that it really became common.
Richard Tandy called Discovery Disco Very. Maybe. Also , on the back of the album is a very young Brad Garrett.
Yes, highly influenced by Jeff as they've lifted part of the melody from 'Confusion' - even some of the words are the same.
Video Killed The Radio Star released in 1979 has 80's production as far as I'm concerned. That's the sort of production I hear on Time. Not my cup of tea, and I have a hard time separating the music of a record from the production.
I like that sound a lot more than i used to. I can appreciate albums like Buggles, Eddie Jobson’s Zinc, etc. albums i wouldn’t have bothered with at the time. But the notorious gated drums and the horrible new romantic wave of poofy haired synth pop bands sound horrible to me still. I still need to hear Balance Of Power before i can see how 80s Jeff went.
If you know Reinhold Mack's work with Queen and Freddie Mercury's 1985 solo album Mr Bad Guy especially, there definitely are some similar sounds there on Balance of Power and its outtakes. I don't think that's a bad thing.
In this order: 1. A NEW WORLD RECORD 2. ELDORADO 3. FACE THE MUSIC My 4, 5 would be OUT OF THE BLUE and THE ELECTRIC ORCHESTRA
I was a bit surprised to see that Mik was still a part of the band for the brief Balance Of Power tour.
During Covid I was forced to sell some rare LPs for financial reasons, one of which was Zoom: a decision I now regret; partly because the guy I sold it to turned out to be a prize douche, but mostly because it’s a really great album IMHO, and would’ve been in my top 3 if it’d been a choice though I do understand why it wasn’t). Buying it mint now is close to $400, so my bucket list now includes that one getting reissued…
All of the releases 71-86 are albums I can listen to top to tail without hitting skip - even tracks I don't overly like I still let play. For the purposes of this exercise - in no particular order - and assuming original track lists: 1: OTTD 2: Eldorado 3: FTM
1. Time - A masterpiece of synth pop/rock (I include the B-Sides as well, 'Julie Don't Live Here' should have been a non-album single after 'Hold On Tight' I reckon) 2. Face The Music - Although it only has eight tracks, there's not a filler among them. 'One Summer Dream' is my all-time favourite E.L.O song - it's just so perfectly beautiful IMHO. 3. ELO 2 - 5 songs, none lasting less than 6 minutes. Both 'Kuiama' & 'Momma' are in my Top 10 all-time favourite E.L.O songs.
I don't think *anything* sounds like "Time" really. It's futuristic sounding but totally unique. One of my favorites, and I can't understand why there hasn't been some kind of deluxe release of it (other than Jeff having a problem with it).
I think Jeff has a problem with most of his back catalogue, hence no official remasters of B-sides 'Drum Dreams' & 'Matter Of Fact' (Or 'Mater Of Fact' as seen here QUAD-SO-SERIOUS-2-MATTER-OF-FACT-UK-Copy...4.jpg (981×992) (outoftheblueartifacts.com) I have a newspaper article from 2019 when 'From Out Of Nowhere' was released & in it he states that he has thousands of cassettes with unused material on them, but he can't play them because he doesn't have a cassette player! Really? Jeff Lynne multimillionaire super producer can't get hold of a cassette player. I find that hard to believe. What I do believe is that Jeff doesn't like to put archival stuff out without fiddling with it first as he has said in the past he's not happy with the sound any more. I doubt we'll ever get any 'Super Deluxe Ultimate' Box Sets of any E.L.O stuff, ever, sadly. And that's a shame!
Voted s/t Out Of The Blue Time I should have included Eldorado, but the above are the ones with the biggest impact here. Edit: Threw on Face The Music thx to this thread, kudos to those who voted for it, it's in my top 5
