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A New World Record

 
Album Review: A New World Record
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New World Record

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Review

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

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Tightrope (Lyrics) Jeff Lynne Electric Light Orchestra (5:03)
Telephone Line (Lyrics) Jeff Lynne Electric Light Orchestra (4:38)
Rockaria! (Lyrics) Jeff Lynne Electric Light Orchestra (3:12)
Mission (A World Record) Jeff Lynne Electric Light Orchestra (4:25)
So Fine (Lyrics) Jeff Lynne Electric Light Orchestra (3:54)
Livin' Thing (Lyrics) Jeff Lynne Electric Light Orchestra (3:31)
Above the Clouds (Lyrics) Jeff Lynne Electric Light Orchestra (2:16)
Do Ya (Lyrics) Jeff Lynne Electric Light Orchestra (3:43)
Shangri-La (Lyrics) Jeff Lynne Electric Light Orchestra (5:34)

Credits

Jeff Lynne (Choir Arrangement), Richard Tandy (Guitar), Richard Tandy (Orchestration), Jeff Lynne (Producer), Richard Tandy (Clavinet), Melvyn Gale (Group Member), Jeff Lynne (Synthesizer), Jeff Lynne (Vocals), Hugh McDowell (Group Member), Jeff Lynne (Group Member), Jeff Lynne (Guitar), Bev Bevan (Vocals), Louis Clark (Choir Arrangement), Louis Clark (Producer), Kelly Groucutt (Vocals (Background)), Bev Bevan (Drums), Jeff Lynne (Keyboards), Richard Tandy (Group Member), Hugh McDowell (Cello), Richard Tandy (Vocals), Bev Bevan (Vocals (Background)), Jeff Lynne (Audio Production), Richard Tandy (Moog Synthesizer), Richard Tandy (Choir Arrangement), Bev Bevan (Group Member), Kelly Groucutt (Bass), Louis Clark (Orchestration), Kelly Groucutt (Guitar (Bass)), Jeff Lynne (Orchestration), Mik Kaminski (Violin), Melvyn Gale (Cello), Jeff Lynne (Vocals (Background)), Kelly Groucutt (Percussion), Richard Tandy (Keyboards), Richard Tandy (Piano), Kelly Groucutt (Group Member), Richard Tandy (Synthesizer), Bev Bevan (Percussion), Kelly Groucutt (Vocals)
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Wikipedia: A New World Record
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
For the album by the Poster Children, see New World Record.
A New World Record
Studio album by Electric Light Orchestra
Released October 1976
11 September 2006 (UK)
September 12, 2006 (US)
Recorded July 1976
Musicland Studios, Munich
Genre Rock, Art rock
Length 36:20
59:12 Reissue
Label Jet Records, United Artists Records & Columbia Records
Epic/Legacy (reissue)
Producer Jeff Lynne; Engineer - Mack
Professional reviews
Electric Light Orchestra chronology
Face the Music
(1975)		 A New World Record
(1976)		 Out of the Blue
(1977)

A New World Record is the sixth studio album by Electric Light Orchestra. It was released in 1976.

Contents

Overview

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 album sold five million units worldwide within its first year of release. 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.

“ 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. ”
– Jeff Lynne 2006; A New World Record remaster

Chart Positions, Chart Runs

Original Track Listing

All songs written by Jeff Lynne.

Side one

# Title Length
1. "Tightrope"   5:03
2. "Telephone Line"   4:38
3. "Rockaria!"   3:12
4. "Mission (A World Record)"   4:25

Side two

# Title Length
1. "So Fine"   3:54
2. "Livin' Thing"   3:31
3. "Above the Clouds"   2:16
4. "Do Ya"   3:43
5. "Shangri-La"   5:32

Bonus tracks (2006 remaster)

  1. "Telephone Line" (Alternate vocal) – 4:41
  2. "Surrender" (previously unreleased) – 2:37
  3. "Tightrope" (alternate mix) – 4:55
  4. "Above the Clouds" (Instrumental version) – 1:14
  5. "So Fine" (Instrumental version) – 4:16
  6. "Telephone Line" (Instrumental version) – 4:51

Personnel

External links

Preceded by
Rumours by Fleetwood Mac		 Australian Kent Music Report number-one album
18 April 1977 – 19 June 1977		 Succeeded by
Silk Degrees by Boz Scaggs


v • d • e
Electric Light Orchestra
Jeff Lynne · Roy Wood · Bev Bevan · Richard Tandy
Other members in Electric Light Orchestra
Studio albums
The Electric Light Orchestra (No Answer) · ELO 2 (Electric Light Orchestra II)  · On the Third Day · Eldorado · Face the Music · A New World Record · Out of the Blue · Discovery · Xanadu · Time · Secret Messages · Balance of Power · Zoom
Live albums
Compilation albums
Videos
Discovery (1979) · Live at Wembley (1980) · Fusion - Live In London (1990) · The Very Best of ELO (1991) · Zoom Tour Live (2001) · Total Rock Review (2006)
Related articles

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "A New World Record".  Read more

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