Out Of The Blue

Not my thing.

Nhé

gawd, no please. I will need to listen to some real rock after this travesty of supposed-rock. I hated them then and my opinion remains the same. 1 "make room ABBA" stars.

Beatlesque, which isn’t a good thing. Don’t like the singing. Lasts forever.

It’s like Queen and the Beatles (magical mystery tour era) had a baby and that baby was a rock opera… sounds good on paper but this was not for me for the most part. Too theatrical, some of the blues-influenced tracks feel like parody. Might be a good guilty pleasure album for a person who is not me.

It's ok, not really my thing though

Sounds like Queen without the rock aspect

Eurgh… borderline unlistenable. Half a mark for ‘Believe Me Now’ because it was short and sounded a bit like Air…

I'm so bored. So so bored. Every song is the same - I feel like Michelle Visage on Drag Race "we need more levels, you were at one level the whole time!". On the plus side maybe I'll fall asleep before this overly long album ends.

WTF was that?

Strip away the horrible, excessive overlaid vocals and the vocoder; you'd have some pretty catchy songs. But, otherwise this is just pretentious. Way to go, Jeff Lynne, you probably inspired punk rock music. A long slog of overdone music. This isn't picking up where the Beatles left off, it's just mental. I really didn't enjoy this. 1 star.

Was not my favorite album. Got about 3/4 of the way through. Never heard the full version of Mr blue sky and didn’t really like it as much as I thought I did. Definitely felt like it was made on garage band. Very electronic which isn’t really my style of music.

this feels like a bunch of classic rock cliches. like put rush, pink floyd, zepplin and maybe some disco into a blender. this is the most melodic racism i've ever heard.

Som en dålig mix av Queen och Beatles, eller Lennon solo, med en skvätt rymdreverb. En enkelskiva hade jag kunnat leva med. Men en dubbel blir bara för mycket.

En dubbel-LP symfonisk melodiös boggie woggie. Jag är beredd att ge upp redan före den indelande låten är slut. Standin' in the rain outhärdlig. Är det steppdans jag hör i Jungle? Fullt förståeligt att LP-skivan återfinns i de flesta loppisbackar.

Meh

What in the Willy Wonka, Oompa Loompa, Xanadu-ABBA-Bee Gee mess is this? I suppose in the mid 1970s, Star Wars-Cher bedazzled variety show era, this album felt comfortable and enjoyable. Not today. I don’t know what I thought ELO was but it wasn’t this. And I don’t want to hear anymore. 1/5

Meh. Did not care for this one.

It's over esta guapa Across the border parece que rips off heroes and villains de maneira un pouco cutre... Non sei se é un tropo habitual no surf ou no blues q non controlo Mima e night in the city e como un refrito dos Beatles e the who un pouco regular Non me mola como soa o disco en xeral, é como que non ten punch Paréceme música bastante superficial

One hour and ten minutes of dorky theater kid prog bullshit :-(((

This is definitely an album. 1.0/5.0 Best song: Mr Blue Sky I guess

Very shit, pure cheese and at times a pretty difficult listen. I like the music, but Jeff Lynne has to shut up sometimes. CNF 2.1/10

This is like if Pink Floyd and Queen had a kid, and then one of those bands turned into a psycho stage mom and forced that kid to become somehow even more ridiculous than its parentage would indicate. I think I'd only known that "Bruce" song and "Mr. Blue Sky" from ELO, and deliberately avoided them because of that. Good move, me! I know there's a big ideological divide about this and that generation of three-chord wonders, and it's obvious which side of the fence I'm on. This is overwrought, sterile and overproduced. On the plus side, this reaffirms my belief that I will almost certainly hate any album that has an airbrushed spaceship on its cover.

Absolutely not for me. Never liked ELO and still don't.

Ceaseless string section fills Robo-space voice Beatles wannabe songs Rococo excessive production E.L. Hell, No

This album walked so Benson Boone could backflip. If someone recommended me this album, I’d assume they don’t wash their legs. Honestly though why is it so long? High: The Whale Lows: The other hour of listening.

Electric piano and synth flute just isn't for me. Normally I would like this genre but I'll take Bee Gees and Elton John and the others from this time period instead. The track "Birmingham Blues" started strong but yeah, this artist isn't for me. Still gonna hear this tired ass song at the end of bad Chris Pratt movies tho.

if ziggy stardust was white and from a shitty town in bristol. god its really just so fucking bad highs: the whale was pretty lows: the album

I don't like ELO. It sounds good but it's just a futuristic copy of the Beatles and sounds like Queen and many other 70s groups. Mr. Blue Sky is the worst hit song ever from a rock band like this. A necessary evil to influence better acts.

Absolutely horrendous boomer rock slop with no substance. Its like they heard The Beatles and said "We should do this but worse. The big hit "Mr. Blue Sky" is probably one of the most annoying songs ive ever heard 3/10 Favourite: None Least Favourite: Mr. Blue Sky

this sucks and its too long and it sucks

Ughhhh I am not excited for this. I will be utterly surprised if I give this album anything more than a 1 purely for it having Mr blue sky on it. Ughhh and it just gets worse. It’s 17 songs long and an hour and 11 minutes. Yup. Easiest 1 I’ll ever give.

Queen and ELO in the same week? Tempted to buy some supermarket stone washed jeans, a brown leather jacket and a copy of The Times then go to the pub for a pint of mild and a right good chat on what's wrong with the modern world.

it's all a bit too Alan Partridge-ey for me I'm afraid. I can't take it seriously, but are/were ELO supposed to be serious, is it jokey, tongue in cheek? What do I know, don't like it that much though.

Ugh Blugh Bleh

I know two Elo songs (don’t let me down and witchy women) I guess from the radio when I was in a car as a kid. Those songs are terrible. These songs are terrible. I think it’s my first 1. It’s really terrible.

Bloody hell! Over an hour of this??? Emulating the Beatles ten years too late is not cool. Little wonder that punk came about, in fact ELOs contribution to the birth of punk might be their only redeeming feature.

Voilà. C’est fait. J’ai survécu. Je viens de m’infliger les 70 minutes et 22 secondes de "Out of the Blue" d’Electric Light Orchestra. Soixante-dix putains de minutes. Je pourrais presque ajouter ça sur mon CV, juste en dessous de « Vendeur de disques pendant la guerre Blur vs Oasis » et « Animateur radio pendant l’invasion de la Macarena ». Ça pose un homme, une telle épreuve. Quand j’ai vu ce double album arriver dans la liste, j’ai senti une vieille angoisse remonter. Pas la bonne, celle qui te prend aux tripes avant un concert des Stooges. Non, plutôt celle du dimanche soir, quand tu sais que le lendemain, il y a interro de maths et que t’as rien révisé. ELO, pour moi, c’est le son de l’ennui poli, la bande-son officielle des salles d’attente et des après-midis chez des amis de tes parents qui ont une collection de cactus et des murs couleur saumon. Alors, c’est avec un courage que je qualifierais de surhumain que j’ai posé ce disque sur la platine (métaphoriquement, bien sûr, on est en 2025, merde). Et là, le drame. Le drame attendu, mais le drame quand même. On va aller droit au but, parce que contrairement à Jeff Lynne, je n’ai pas l’intention de vous faire perdre votre temps. "Out of the Blue" n’est rien de plus, rien de moins, que la plus gigantesque, la plus boursouflée, la plus prétentieuse contrefaçon des Beatles jamais produite. Je pèse mes mots. Ce n’est pas un hommage, c’est une OPA hostile sur l’héritage des Fab Four. Tout y est, mais en version Wish. Les enchaînements harmoniques de McCartney ? Copiés. Les envolées mélodiques de Lennon ? Pompées. Les arrangements orchestraux de George Martin ? Imbibés de sirop pour la toux et recrachés avec la subtilité d’un éléphant dans un magasin de porcelaine. Et cette voix… cette voix de Jeff Lynne qui s’évertue à sonner comme un mélange de Paul et John, mais qui finit par n’évoquer qu’un clone sous anxiolytiques. C’est un rock tellement orchestral qu’il en oublie d’être du rock. Les violons dégoulinent, les synthés pépient comme des oisillons sous ecstasy et le vocodeur, mon Dieu, le vocodeur… À l’époque, ça devait sonner « futuriste ». Aujourd’hui, ça sonne comme un GPS qui aurait pris un mauvais acide. C’est la technologie comme cache-misère, un gadget pour masquer le vide intersidéral qui habite ces compositions. Le pire, c’est que c’est un double album. Pourquoi ? Quelle était l’urgence ? Le côté « concept », la fameuse suite « Concerto for a Rainy Day » ? Laissez-moi rire. Un concerto pour un jour de pluie, c’est exactement ça : long, gris, et tu attends juste que ça se termine pour aller prendre l’air. On est face à un album qui est non seulement mou, mais qui s’étire, qui se vautre dans sa propre mollesse avec une complaisance qui force le respect. Chaque morceau semble durer une éternité. Les intros s’allongent, les ponts n’en finissent plus, les codas sont à rallonge. C’est pompeux, c’est grandiloquent. C’est l’équivalent musical d’un discours de politicien : ça brasse beaucoup d’air, ça utilise des grands mots, mais au final, il ne reste rien. Même le fameux vaisseau spatial sur la pochette (qui a dû coûter un bras, d’ailleurs) a l’air de vouloir fuir la musique qu’il est censé illustrer. Je veux bien admettre que c’est techniquement irréprochable. La production est tellement léchée qu’on pourrait manger dessus. C’est propre, c’est lisse, c’est nickel. Tellement nickel que c’en est stérile. Il n’y a aucune aspérité, aucune faille, aucune humanité. C’est du Formica sonore. Une musique de designer pour des intérieurs sans âme. Alors, pourquoi diable ce truc est-il dans le livre des « 1001 albums que vous devez écouter avant de mourir » ? Pour les chiffres de vente, sans doute. Pour son succès à l’époque. Mais depuis quand le succès commercial est-il un gage de qualité artistique ? On a bien vendu des millions de disques de La Compagnie Créole, ça n’en fait pas pour autant des oeuvres impérissables. L’écoute fut difficile, et le verdict est sans appel. Cet album est un monument de prétention, un colosse aux pieds d’argile synthétique. Il ne raconte rien, ne procure aucune émotion brute. C’est une symphonie du vide, un space opera pour comptables. La note de 1 sur 5 est presque charitable. À éviter, sauf si vous avez une armoire à caler ou besoin d’un frisbee de luxe. Passez votre chemin, il y a mille autres disques qui méritent vraiment votre temps. Celui-ci, vous pouvez mourir tranquille sans l’avoir écouté. Croyez-moi, vous ne manquerez rien

Geht so

Feels like going 65 mph in a 65mph zone

I come back to this every few years to see if I like it any better, and I never do. The lyrics are unbelievably corny. The music’s so blah, it’s always a half-assed version of Queen or the Kinks or Steely Dan or whatever decent 70s act who you like a whole lot more. I mean, groovy 70s is right in my wheelhouse, and I know so many people that swear by this album, and maybe if I’d heard it at the time I could have accepted the whole hotrodding cheap weed and beer vibe…but there’s not a single song on here I’d listen to even twice.

My heart sank when this came up. I came close to not listening, but in the spirit of this thing..... I'm a George Harrison fan and respect him as a human being, but it always amazed me that he actually wanted Jeff Lynne to produce for him. He let Jeff ruin two half decent Beatles Singles because of this cloth-eared blind spot. But Jeff's dabbling with George and the Travelling Wilburys is one thing. Pure Jeff like this album is just fekkin' awful. I made it 5 songs in and had to quit. The mushy, one level sound, the horrible, forced cheerful-ness of the backing vocals -constantly interjecting - mistaking multi-tracking for harmonising. I think that's waht bothers me - the layers and layers of the same stuff. It's not clever. It's not a Wall of Sound - not in a good way. It's just lots and lots of tracks all playing the same stuff at the same time. The songs buried under the layers of one-tone sound are OK-good. But I struggle to concentrate on them as the production is just too hamfisted.

Long, Ornate, obnoxious orchestral flourishes and choral singers in Orchestral Pop

Tepid corporate dad schlock that doesn't move the needle one bit. It's pretentious, meandering prattle that only serves Jeff Lynne's ego. Something about Lynne that rubs me the wrong way. Hard pass.

This album is so happy that it makes it annoying and oversaturated, and it never changes the pace for its runtime of over an hour. Also if I ever hear Mr Blue Sky again I am going to rip my ears off. Seriously, how is the world not sick to death of that song already.

Prog on easy mode. Peak 70s bloat. A aliant effort at making a perfectly smooth album. Like using a firehose to fill a half pint glass with Paul McCartney's worst impulses. Or if Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote a musical based on Space Oddity. Once in a while there's a bridge that really hits, but it's a bridge over something you'd want to hear between to things you don't.

No heart, no soul

An album full of forgettable songs.

It was not that great, other than evil woman and Mr blue

Pretty rubbish.

Gar nicht meins. Alter Electrokitschrock.

Oh god no please make Mr Bluesky stop forever I don't like it I don't like it no no no.

Jos tekee rockoopperaa, kannattaa tehdä mielenkiintoisesti. Musikaalimainen huonolla tavalla

i just can't get onboard with this prog rock shite at all. Muso at it's worst.

mostly new but only had one good track a meh

Meh.

I'm sorry I can not do these. Its obnoxious

Skipped through it. Shite.

Truly the past is a foreign country - what we’re they thinking?

This was the first record I can recall buying. When I was still too young to go to second hand shops. Many of the other early purchases - Parallel Lines, Setting Sons - I listen to this day. This not so much. Not at all. Re-listening it is not really the songs. No-one can deny Lynne's songwriting. But there's a general sense of mid-70s ennui that the Eagles turned into gold, but here is just a sense of everything being just a little too laid back. Then there's Jeff Lynne's voice. Just don't like it - because he sounds completely without conviction. Not every vocalist is Iggy Pop, but there's a feeling for me he's doing the guide vocals for someone else. Finally, there's the odd novelty hit/pastiche vibe (Jungle could be a bad 10cc b-side) that a band at the very height of their commercial powers really shouldn't be doing. Want to hear the Quo with a string section? Birmingham Blues. Positives: Mr Blue Sky is still a pocket pop symphony, and the Whale is the bastard son of The Love Unlimited Orchestra and The Orb - bizarre and by far the most interesting track here. But for me the pop energy that fizzed through A New World Record has been traded away for something much lesser.

Não tem nada que agrade meu gosto musical

Ffs

Not a fan. Still, good to listen to while doing the dishes. I need to do a poo. Home alone with Ruby.

1|20

I’m coming for you

6.5/10 Best songs - starlight Pretty good I liked it a lot but it is a very specific vibe. Another summer drop top album.

Fun! Would listen again