Out of the Blue

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***Out of the Blue*** is the 7th studio album from the British rock band ELO. It contains 17 songs.

## Background

This was the second most pop heavy album from ELO the first being "A New World Record". When the album was being made Jeff Lynne rented a chatlet in the alps were, he was met with endless rain for 2 weeks until a day when the clouds were gone and a shiny blue sky came. This gave Jeff Lynne inspiration writing 12 songs on the album in just 2 weeks. With the next being made in the next week.

## Recording

After the 3 weeks of writing every song Jeff Lynne went back to Musicland in Germany to record the songs for the next 2 months.

This is one of the first pop albums to use vocoders.

## Concerto Of A Rainy Day

Concerto of A Rainy Day is Side C of the double album. The side is meant to tell a story of different weathers with intense rain (Standing In The Rain), Sadness from the rain (Big Wheels), Hope (Summer And Lighting) and Happiness from a clear sky (Mr. Blue Sky).

## Singles

The album spawned 4 hits in the uk which are the following:

1. Turn To Stone
2. Mr. Blue Sky
3. Sweet Talkin' Woman
4. Wild West Hero

## Songs

**Side A**

* The album begins with the song "Turn To Stone" This is a fast and cheery song being a mix of pop rock and synthesizers
* The second song on the album is "It's Over" This is a song that is very sad but gives off hope.
* The third song on the album is "Sweet Talkin' Woman" this is the first song on the album to use a vocoder and is a very happy song. This song is most likely inspired by "The Beach Boys"
* The fourth song is "Across The Border" The song is filled with energy and harmony and has a western vibe.

**Side B**

* The first song on side b is "Night In The City" The song uses many sound effects and has a cowbell like sound.
* The second song is "Starlight" This song starts with a synthesizer intro. It is one of the most spacey tunes of ELO.
* The third song is "Jungle" it uses sound effects of monkeys and grass.
* The fourth song is "Believe Me Now" it is shortest song on the album and is the first instrumental song on the album.
* The last song on side b is "Stepping Out" It is a very melancholic song.

**Side C (Concerto For A Rainy Day)**

* The First Song on side c is "Standing In The Rain" it is a very intense song. Translating violins through out the song in Morse code translates into ELO.
* The second song on side c is "Big Wheels" this is one of the saddest songs on the album It is also the longest song on the album.
* The third song on side c is "Summer And Lighting". The ending of the song is sounds of rain.
* the last song on side c is "Mr. Blue Sky" this one of there most Beatles inspired songs. It is also considered the happiest song.

**Side D**

* The first song for side d is "Sweet Is Night". It is most likely meant to be a sequel to "Night In The City"
* The next song is "The Whale" It is the last instrumental song on the album and is very Synth heavy. It is also very sci-fi like.
* the third song on the on side d is "Birmingham Blues". The song is named from where the band was formed.
* The last song on the album is "Wild West Hero". It is a western like ballad but, also tries to combine orchestra and rock to the song as well.

## Art

This album is the second ELO album to use there signature space ship (The first being A New World Record). The image of a spaceship docking was based from the film "2001: A Space Odyssey". The numbers on the spaceship was is the production code for the album.

The inside of the album shows the inside of the spaceship.

## Reception

Ratings
 Encyclopedia Of Popular Music
 Pitchfork
 Rolling Stones
 Music Hound
 The Rolling Stones Album guide
 The Guardian
 Pop matters
 BBC

When the album released it got mixed reception. in 1977 Rolling Stones said that the album was "meticulously produced and performed" and "no passion went into it."

After it was released it has gotten more favorable a example was in 2007 when Pitchfork said that "Calling in the string section and commissioning the spaceship cover-art may be a big gamble, but *Out of the Blue* is proof of how good it can sound when the grand approach works."

The album was voted number 346 of Colin Larkins top 1000 albums.

lead singer of the band "Guns And Roses" Axl Rose said that "*Out of the Blue* is an awesome record."

## Personal

* Jeff Lynne: Lead and backing vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, many other guitars, Electric Piano, Mini moog synthesizer, Producer, Orchestral and Choral arrangements
* Bev Bevan: Drums, Backing Vocals, Fire Extingusher
* Kelly Groucutt: Lead vocals in Sweet Is Night, Bass, Backing Vocals
* Richard Tandy: Piano, many types of Synthesizers and Keyboards, Electric Guitar, Orchestral and Choral arrangments
* Mik Kaminski: Violen
* Hugh Mcdowell: Cello
* Melvyn Gale: Cello
* Mack: Engineer
* Louis Clark: Conducted orchestra.

## Charts

1977
 UK
 Dutch
 Sweden
 Norway
 Canada
 Japan
 Australia
 New Zealand
 Germany

## Sales

1977
 Netherlands
 Germany
 Canada

## Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out\_of\_the\_Blue\_(Electric\_Light\_Orchestra\_album)