Discovery - ELO > Reviews > Discovery - or was it really 'very disco'?

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Average
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Average
Value for Money

Advantages:	Five Top 10 hits
Disadvantages:	A shadow of their earlier triumphs

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

The word games with the title of what proved to be ELO's best-selling album ever (straight into No. 1 in the UK album chart, where it stayed for five weeks) are appropriate. Whereas the group, or rather front man/writer/producer Jeff Lynne, had broken new ground with every previous set, by now they were becoming formularised and following musical trends rather than carving out their own distinctive path. While the opening track "Shine a Little Love" is an infectious, exhilarating number that could rank alongside the best of the dance floor competition in '79 from Abba, the Bee Gees, Blondie et al, and "Confusion" is a decent enough pop song, it goes downhill from that point. A succession of pale retreads of past glories like the 'very discoish' "Last Train To London", which is little more than "Evil Woman" Mk II, the intensely irritating novelty story song "The Diary of Horace Wimp", a bastardised shadow of "Mr Blue Sky", and a succession of mushy ballads that might have been acceptable on a Wet Wet Wet album do not a great ELO record make. Thankfully it redeems itself towards the end with the lively "On the Run" and goes out on a note of triumph with the stomping, eternal live favourite "Don't Bring Me Down". But five of the nine songs came out as singles, two on a double A-side, and all made the Top 10. Unless you're an ELO completist, you don't need a 'greatest hits' or 'best of' and this as well.