A NEW WORLD RECORD

I listened to this album for the first time in 1977. My father sent one of my brothers to buy it, thinking that it had a song that he listened in the radio and that he liked, but he couldn`t remember the name of the band or of the song. He played this album, he didn`t find that song on the album (some time later he knew that the song was called "Spring`s Rain" or something like that, composed by an musician called Bebu Silvetti, from Argentina!). My father didn`t like "A New World Record" very much, so he gave the album as a gift to my brother.

In 1976-77, most of the radio stations in my country played Disco Music almost endlessly. I never have been a fan of this style of music. So, "A New World Record", which sounded then (and it still sounds to me) like commercial Rock, was a good option. Recently, I listened to this album again, and my views changed. I think that now, in hindsight, I can write a more "balanced" review for this album.

This album is good, and it seems that ELO spent a lot of time recording it. The songs are not very complicated. Basically, the songs are good Pop Rock songs with very good arrangements. Sometimes the arrangements are excellent. So this album has a lot of quality in arrangements, but some songs are not very good. Something that I don`t like are the Falsetto vocals in some songs, a la Bee Gees of the mid and late seventies. Jeff Lynne, IMO, was now with a clear objective in his mind: to release commercial songs, with very good arrangements, but with radio playing in mind.

The best songs in this album, IMO, are: "Rockaria!", with humour in the lyrics and in the arrangements, a Rock song which includes a real Opera singer!; "Mission (a World Record)", despite a funky arrangement played with clavinet and orchestra; "Do Ya", a very good Rock song, which was first recorded with The Move in 1970-71; and "Shangri-La", the best of all in this album, with great orchestral and choral arrangements, particularly at the end of the song.

The "almost Bee Gees" songs are "So Fine", "Livin`Thing" and particularly, "Above the Clouds", with Falsettos! "Telephone Line" is good, but this song is still played in some oldies FM radio stations a lot, and I`m tired of this song.

In conclusion, this album has a lot of quality, and it deserves the popularity it has. But I still prefer other of ELO`most commercial albums: "Out of the Blue" and "Balance of Power". So, as I gave to "Balance of Power" 3 stars, I give to this album 2.5 stars, mostly for the Disco Music influences.