The Smiley Smile Message Board

https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=uy0oWuhTzh8


http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/hear-electric-light-orchestras-reggae-tinged-when-the-night-comes-20151015

https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=tfaC-I8uCjs

I need to get into this band more, amazing music.  Great new song, but to be honest I don't know hardly any of their originals, so I'll check some out. 

Start with Eldorado Ron. They are all pretty dang good, after the first album.

I'm a huge ELO/Jeff Lynne fan. Worth noting is that if you dig his new stuff, it doesn't sound a ton like his 70s ELO stuff. His post-ELO (as in the original ELO run that ended in 1986) stuff is in many ways production-wise, and to a lesser degree compositionally, somewhat different from that original ELO era, especially the early-mid 70s stuff.

If you like the new stuff, it's definitely worth picking up 2001's "Zoom" album released as ELO (the new 2015 "Alone in the Universe" album stuff sounds pretty similar), and Lynne's 1990 "Armchair Theatre." There's also a smattering of bonus tracks from the 2000s on various ELO/Jeff Lynne CDs.

The strongest ELO stuff comes from the mid 70s stretch: Eldorado in 1974, Face the Music in 1975, A New World Record in 1976, and Out of the Blue in 1977. 1979's "Discovery" and ELO's half of the 1980 "Xanadu" soundtrack are a bit more disco-ish, but still great pop hooks. "Time" from 1981 and "Secret Messages" from 1983 get more electronic and scale back the strings, but still again have great pop hooks on many songs. I find 1986's "Balance of Power" less impressive, but still some good stuff there. The first three ELO albums, pre-Eldorado, especially the second and third album, go in a relatively prog-rock direction. But as always, Lynne's knack for melody is there.

The aforementioned "Armchair Theatre" and "Zoom" are great exercises in pop/melodic powerpop greatness I think. Very different from ELO stuff production-wise, but the same genius for melody.

Interestingly, "When the Night Comes" is, compositionally/arrangement-wise somewhat evocative of Lynne's "Secret Messages" era I think.

I'd say Rolling Stone's characterization of "When the Night Comes" as "reggae" is kind of weird, to me. I guess I see why they're saying that, as it isn't Lynne's often-used straight 4/4 with snare on the 2 and 4 beat, but I'd say it just has a bit of vaguely R&B feel as opposed to reggae.

Otherwise, cool to see a nice Rolling Stone blurb on the song.

I loved ELO II. Showdown,  Mama, ROB. Though not yet the classic Jeff Lynne sound that struck gold.

The whole album can now be heard at NPR.

http://www.npr.org/2015/11/04/454307946/first-listen-jeff-lynnes-elo-alone-in-the-universe#

Like Jeff and ELO but this reminds me of Fogerty solo sounding just like CCR. Make an ELO album, Jeff. You know it has to have a bot of that song and then a bit of this one. Don't know why he didn't just put it out as a solo album. Stiil there are some good tracks on it and I've been enjoying the live Zoom and his Armchair Theatre album (so much better than the more recent solo album) lately. I like the first ELO album too - those grinding cellos! First time around I jumped ship when I heard Discovery, now I quite like it, though the it's a bit of a guilty pleasure. MY favourite by far is A New World Record.

Another new song. Not so much liking this one. " One  Step at a Time "


https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=uy0oWuhTzh8

This album is really excellent, like a warm hug from the past. Every song has a good hook. It's just full of solid Pop craftsmanship. Vocally, Lynne can still deliver like he did a quarter century ago. This is the best ELO album since Secret Messages, the album this is the most similar too. It's all the more impressive to consider Lynne plays all the instruments.  There's really no bad cuts here. One Step At A Time might have been a hit single in the 70s. I give an early Thanksgiving thanks for ELO's  Alone In the Universe.