Jeff Lynne reportedly regards this album and its follow-up, Out of the Blue, as the high points in the band's history. One might be better off opting for A New World Record over its successor, however, as a more modest-sized creation chock full of superb songs that are produced even better. Opening with the opulently orchestrated "Tightrope," which heralds the perfect production found throughout this album, A New World Record contains seven of the best songs ever to come out of the group. The Beatles influence is present, to be sure, but developed to a very high degree of sophistication and on Lynne's own terms, rather than being imitative of specific songs. "Telephone Line" might be the best Lennon-McCartney collaboration that never was, lyrical and soaring in a way that manages to echo elements of Revolver and the Beatles without ever mimicking them. The original LP's second side opened with "So Fine," which seems like the perfect pop synthesis of guitar, percussion, and orchestral sounds, embodying precisely what Lynne had first set out to do with Roy Wood at the moment ELO was conceived. From there, the album soars through stomping rock numbers like "Livin' Thing" and "Do Ya," interspersed with lyrical pieces like "Above the Clouds" (which makes striking use of pizzicato bass strings). ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
Electric Light Orchestra (Main Performer), Jeff Lynne (Synthesizer), Jeff Lynne (Guitar), Jeff Lynne (Keyboards), Jeff Lynne (Vocals), Jeff Lynne (Vocals (Background)), Jeff Lynne (Producer), Jeff Lynne (Orchestration), Jeff Lynne (Choir Arrangement), Jeff Lynne (Group Member), Louis Clark (Producer), Louis Clark (Orchestration), Louis Clark (Choir Arrangement), Bev Bevan (Percussion), Bev Bevan (Drums), Bev Bevan (Vocals), Bev Bevan (Vocals (Background)), Bev Bevan (Group Member), Melvyn Gale (Cello), Melvyn Gale (Group Member), Kelly Groucutt (Bass), Kelly Groucutt (Percussion), Kelly Groucutt (Vocals), Kelly Groucutt (Vocals (Background)), Kelly Groucutt (Group Member), Mik Kaminski (Violin), Hugh McDowell (Cello), Hugh McDowell (Group Member), Richard Tandy (Synthesizer), Richard Tandy (Guitar), Richard Tandy (Piano), Richard Tandy (Keyboards), Richard Tandy (Vocals), Richard Tandy (Clavinet), Richard Tandy (Orchestration), Richard Tandy (Choir Arrangement), Richard Tandy (Group Member)
The second album to be recorded at Musicland Studios in Munich, the LP proved to be the band's long awaited breakthrough in the UK: after seeing their previous three studio recordings fail to chart in their home market, A New World Record became their first top ten album in the UK, The LP became a huge global success and would consolidate the band's position as one of the biggest selling rock bands in the world, reaching multi-platinum status in the US and UK. The cover art features the famous ELO logo, designed by Kosh, for the first time. This logo would be included on several of the group's subsequent releases.
The album included the hit singles "Telephone Line," which became the band's first gold US single, "Livin' Thing," and "Do Ya" (US); and "Rockaria!" (UK). The focus is more on shorter pop songs, a trend which would continue throughout the rest of ELO's future albums. In 2006, the album was remastered and released with bonus tracks on Sony's Epic/Legacy imprint. "Surrender" was also issued as a promotional single and an iTunes download single, which entered the top 100 download chart.
The band's frontman Jeff Lynne regards his own songwriting at this point to have reached a new high.
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The songs started to flow and most of them came quickly to me. To have all those hits, it was just ...I mean amazing really. Going from doing okay for probably three or four years to suddenly being in the big time, it was a strange but great thing.
