A New World Record

I was 4 years old in 77', that doesn't stop me from appreciating music I might have heard on the radio in the car as a kid but didn't frankly remember well. There are two indisputable classic stone cold war era hits on this disc but those aren't the shiniest gems contained in the track list. While the Telephone "radio mix" is a great sounding classic, the alternate vocal is different enough to stand on it's own and my preferred version. The following track; while a short 2:37 with it's 80's pop sound and is frankly a departure from the tenor of the rest of the album. I found it crave worthy, demanding multiple back to back listenings because of it's dissemblance to the remainder of the rest of it's track mates and It's just a really good radio worthy track in it's own right. In fact I really enjoyed all of the bonus tracks on this disc; immensely.Ripping tracks into FLAC files and looking at some scopes, grams and graphs the inevitable compression can be seen but hearing it is difficult. Through my preferred set up of emotiva XDA dac, Asgard 2 and Senn's HD-600 everything sounds great. I can hear a full range, nothing fallen out during the conversion or remastering. Keep in mind I have no frame of reference for the original vinyl pressing and it's sound but strings sound like strings and cymbals sound like cymbals. Even though the HD's can be bass light I don't find myself wanting more low end from the remaster and the treble is smooth and doesn't shriek at me, nothing muddled with a nice mid-range; which is exactly the sound I expect from this set up with a decent recording.The packaging is obligatory. The standard issue fragile jewel case. Personally the quality of the music warrants something a little more exceptional and I prefer the more uncommon gate-fold style digipack. There has to be more back story to this and probably all of E.L.O's albums and the digipack format gives a little space for more extensive liner notes and it's a little more robust against handling foibles/slimmer for storage. There might be a re-issue of that type on the market. This one just isn't it. A small criticism really, the packaging could be better because this is really a fantastic album.

I remember when this album was new. I was in the University District in Seattle and I walked into the U of W bookstore and they were playing this record and cranking it up through the store sound system. I was hooked. I bought it and then ended up buying all the ELO I could get my hands on. This album made me an ELO fan.Anyway, I'll spare the track-by-track description here and just give you the low-down on what's going on with this new remastered-with-bonus-stuff release of this 1970's power-pop classic.First, I this is the third of the new re-mastered ELO CDs that I've listened to within the past week (the others being Face the Music and On the Third Day) and I must say that this one is the best. The re-mastering process gave this record the mid-high to high-end detail that we missed in the old vinyl days, so there's a good bit of detail for you to hear on this release that you may have never heard before. Be sure to listen with high quality equipment and punch up the mid-high with your tone control or equalizer.Second, the bonus tracks here are the best of any ELO re-release in my opinion. The alternative version of Telephone Line is a great way to hear the song all over again, this time with the vocals up front insteat of sounding like they were "phoned in", which I think was the point of the original version.Surrender is a very fitting track as it is catchy and fun and could have been right at home on the original version of this album. It might have been a good change of pace, actually.The "rough mix" instrumentals aren't that rough at all, they are beautiful and fascinating in their own right. Crank and enjoy!Finally, why is this album considered so "old" anyway? Since when does great music get "old"? I recently went to see the "Beach Boys" (the touring act with Mike Love) and Bo Diddley (he's 77) and people of all ages and three generations were at both concerts having a wonderful time. Maybe there is a young person in your life who needs to be exposed to this stuff. How about playing it for your son or daughter and seeing what happens? Maybe it's an "old world record" to us, but it just might really be a New World Record to them.

If you use the comparison example of the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper" meaning that it was their finist album, then I would offer "A New World Record" as a candidate for the Electric Light Orchestra's finest. If you listen to all of ELO's albums on a whole and in chronological order, you come up to "Eldorado" as being a very fine offering, in deed. Musically, methodically, and technology seems to be catching up with the band at this time. Whether it was being bent on recreating the sound from the studio to the live stage, they were ahead of their time in this department, too. By the time "Face the Music" was released, it, too, arguably could be another of their best lp's. When "A New World Record" hit the shelves, this was a very tight, polished musical offering with each track able to stand on it's own merit. The balance of vocal finesse with tight orchestrations and a full rich sound are here on every track. This is also the first offering to be recorded completely and mastered at Musicland, engineered by Mack. Mack also engineered for other groups of the period, like Queen, after that. Jeff Lynne would always give Mack credit for the better use of the knobs on the mixing board. From this point forward, ELO's albums contained gems on every cut. The record executives said just that, it was reported, about ELO's next project, the double album, "Out of the Blue."

Every song is ear candy as there are no 'throw away' songs on this album. Shangri-La is a hidden gem with the last three minutes of this song being hauntingly beautiful. Telephone Line started my love affair with ELO back in 1976.