Electric Light Orchestra
Discovery

THE REVIEW

As a kid, I enjoyed a type of "sophisticated" music. I considered "easy" music unworthy of my ears... maybe I was taking myself too seriously.

My genuine love for Pink Floyd, early Genesis, and all that "serious" music made me look with scornful arrogance at records like this one that filled the air during the distant 1979 days. Now that I'm a little older, I've happened to listen to it again and I've fallen in love with it.

Could it be because it reminded me of my 15 years when I felt too grown-up for these little records and on my turntable albums by Pink Floyd effortlessly played, from Bee Gees to Jefferson Airplane? From Michael Jackson to Mozart? Could it be that I've become completely daft? I don't know, and truthfully, I don't care.

While never abandoning my passion and immense respect for so-called Rock music, I don't mind at all inserting this CD into my car's player and finding myself in this shy spring driving on Saturday morning through the Piedmont countryside with the peach trees in bloom. The record is perhaps (in my opinion) the most immediate of Electric Light Orchestra. Listening to it, you find yourself pleasantly overwhelmed by positive energy. Their music is an unpretentious orchestral pop made with class and enthusiasm. Drums and the nervous strumming of electric guitars coexist and mix with falsetto choruses, synth basses, and expansive swathes of violins. You can smell the scent of the Beatles, the Bee Gees, but you can also sense an unmistakable aroma, that of Electric Light Orchestra.

The fast tracks burst with freshness from every (virtual vinyl) groove. The slow tracks are so sugary, but so sugary, that they will put you in a good mood with their candid innocence. A masterpiece in its genre, which I keep at home and in the car as you would a box of aspirin for a potential headache. And every time I take myself too seriously, every time I get lost in the dark and hidden universes of my beloved Pink Floyd, every time I forget that outside there's a simple and carefree world waiting for me. I put on "Last Train To London" and take a little break from my "serious records."

Can you also feel the fresh spring wind coming through my car window? I hope so, it's nice to share the joys with friends.