The UK Connection-Electric Light Orchestra: Favorite & Least Favorite Albums

Hey Pete thank you for all the content. I'm truly sorry about everything you're going through. I wish you continued success on the channel and hope you pull through and beat this horrible disease. Be safe and keep a stiff upper lip buddy
Tim Bonczyk of Port Charlotte
Florida

Love the UK guys but I'll be damned if I can make out what they're saying.

My older brother had many of their albums. My favorites: Face The Music & New World Record (brilliant mixture of rock, pop, art rock). Least favorites: Discovery & Xanadu (a few solid compositions, but I get disco'd to death after a while). Wild card: Eldorado (I didn't gravitate to progressive rock as a kid, but in retrospect, these songs are so good). I'm very thankful I got to see them (well, really him) at Madison Square Garden a decade ago.

My top 2 favourite are … Eldorado, Time. Bottom of the list is Face the Music. Wild card … “The Night the Light went on …”

Excellent! 

In the mid-seventies, ELO were my favourite band. New World Record is my favourite. With all respect to Simon, I was so looking forward to getting Discovery after the majesty of Out of the Blue; listened to it once, just about managed to not throw it off the turntable and across the room. It sits among my LPs in absolute pristine condition (played once), and, given Simon's selection, I might well fetch it from the shelf and put in on the Rega for old times sake, or maybe just out of curiosity.

Eldorado to Out of the Blue is a magic run in rock history. Fantastic.

ELO 2 and On The Third Day for me🎉

Nice! I’ve been walking around in Braunschweig, Germany with an ELO-shirt today🙂

My love for ELO is unfathomable! It all started as a 14 yo and Out of the Blue. Discovery came next so these are my 2 favorites. A New World Record is my 3td favorite. ELO has been the soundscape of my life. There are many bands that fill my life with happiness, but ELO has been #1 for me for 48 years.

I might have mentioned this before, but I think you should build the tension. Start with the wildcard, then the 2 least favourite, and work up to the favourite.

1 new world record
2 out of the blue
Best albums
Worst album debut with the exception of 10532 overture
Balance of power

…I am still watching this for the first time as I type, and I'm champing at the bit to discuss Simon's choices…as for "Discovery," I LOVE it…I even love the ballady stuff, like "Need Her Love" and "Midnight Blue"…it's an album where Richard Tandy was pushed more to the forefront, and as a keyboardist, I used to break this album out to play from start to finish to loosen my fingers up…it's wonderful. As for "Time," I felt "cheated" growing up, thanks to MY local FM radio stations…I did not hear "Twilight" at ALL…"Hold On Tight" got a bit of airplay, but it was the magnificent "Here Is The News" that was played CONSTANTLY on radio at that time…if I'd heard "Twilight" as well, I may have bought the album at the time…I didn't get it until MUCH later, and it's fantastic…as for Pete's first "bad" ELO album, "Secret Messages," I remember hearing "Stranger" quite a bit on FM radio…didn't hear "Rock And Roll Is King" very much, tho…it was around the time where my local radio played oodles of Alan Parsons Project and Moody Blues stuff from this time period, so "Stranger" kinda fit right in with that type of material…it was another one I did not buy until much later; now, I'm waiting for the "wildcards"…AND, I was not surprised that none of you guys mentioned one of the "strangest" albums these guys recorded…as a matter of fact, I have not heard this album mentioned ONCE during all my years of watching SOT…not on ELO discussions, and even amongst the myriad of terrific "live album" shows…and that album is "The Light The Light Went On In Long Beach"…I don't know the entire story on this thing, but it was recorded, it seems, on the tour for "On The Third Day"…"rushed" is the word for this, since the show was on May 12, 1974, and the album was released 18 days later…as much as I really want to "like" it, it has way too many cover tunes (Daytripper, Great Balls Of Fire, Roll Over Beethoven) and too many instrumentals…10538 Overture and Showdown are highlights, but damn…was this REALLY their set list at the time? A true oddity in their discography…there are some other live albums from the 70s available, but THAT one, in my opinion, coulda/shoulda been "so much more."

Discovery has been my favorite ELO album since I first heard it when I was around 10 years old. 2nd for me is New World Record. I agree with Pete that there is no bad album, just ones I don't listen to as much. Balance of Power and the debut. I like them but don't reach for them all that often.

Wildcard is Xanadu and I love that one

I've heard the hits from ELO but I have yet to dive into the discography. I think today is the day I'm gonna sit with a few of these albums!

Wild card: Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO. Juliana's one of my favorites. I know she's not a Sea of Tranquility type artist and most people don't like covers albums, but she's pretty good at songwriting/singing/guitar playing for her original albums and also at interpreting the work of others. She takes on ELO without the strings, but just as really good melodic songs that stand on their own. Her version of Telephone Line is my personal favorite from that album.

Me dad (from Yorkshire) favorite band. Fond memories of him blasting their discography from huge 1970s Brit loudspeakers on the weekend….and spending hours looking at the ELO album covers.

Great band, great show. Thanks guys.

The UK Connection Works best with the Three Musketiers. Good to see you, Pete. I’m a huge ELO fan, so I thought I’d join in with my choices:
Favorites: A New World Record (the first album I bought by them and then went back to) Face The Music
Least favorites: Zoom and From Out Of Nowhere (both ELO in name only)
Wild Card: Eldorado (their only concept album and a fun one it is)

Great fun with you as always, I have heard a lot about elo, but never checked them out but now with your favourite I will 😊

here in maine there is an amusement park that has a ride called the Astrosphere. It is basically a ride called The Scrambler painted in blacklight paint and in a dome. There are strobe lights and blacklights and almost horror like images displayed on the walls of the dome…Fire On High is played loud as the ride goes. It was a favorite ride as a kid in the late 70's early 80's and I still LOVE it in my 60's.

Great to see the band back together again…

I always say that Out of the Blue is the only double album by anyone where every song could have been a hit single. And I love Time — I have a soft spot for ‘80s SF and fantasy concept albums, and Time is my favorite one. My wild card would be ELO 2, which I’m a big fan of — I do think that prog is a big enough umbrella to include early ELO. A second wild card would be the first Traveling Wilburys album, which I think is wonderful.

I thought I read once (a long time ago of course), that Jeff Lynne was somewhat showing the Bee Gees that he (Jeff Lynne), could reach the high notes just as well as the Bee Gees could, on the 'Discovery' album.

A wildcard album I would choose is George Harrison's 1987 album 'Cloud Nine'. An absolutely brilliant album with Jeff's hand prints all over it.

Great show! Quite an engaging discussion of ELO, a band that took the world by storm and then faded somewhat from the scene. Shows like this one help remind us of the band's achievement.