Electric Light Orchestra
A New World Record (Jet/United Artists)
Rising indie-pop romantic Tiger La Flor told us about her ELO love...
Tiger La Flor: Picking a favorite album feels nearly impossible as an artist. I was stuck in a tie between Amor Prohibido by Selena, In Utero by Nirvana, For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver, Odyssey and Oracle by The Zombies, Super Trouper by ABBA, Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi, and Unforgettable by Nat King Cole (very disparate taste, I know), so consider those all honorary mentions.
That said, I landed on A New World Record, because Electric Light Orchestra is—borrowing a line from a music biography I read—criminally underrated. Truly. The most in-depth information I could find on them was a Medium article written by a fan, which somehow made the point even clearer. They deserve the shoutout.
The first time Spotify served me ELO, my mind was blown. This album feels like the love child of The Beatles, David Bowie, and Queen. You hear the Beatles’ influence especially on tracks like “So Fine” and “Livin’ Thing,” while the space-age moments on “Mission (A World Record)” and “Above the Clouds” recall Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust era and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. The operatic theatricality of “Rockaria!” and “Shangri-La” is reminiscent of Queen’s A Night at the Opera, with an electric vocal delivery that brings to mind Springsteen on Born to Run.
In one word, their music is bombastic—something I miss deeply in today’s music. Where so much has become stripped-down and sterile, this album is the opposite: maximalist, over-the-top, conceptually weird as hell, yet still insanely catchy and cohesive. The details—the telephone noises on “Telephone Line,” the space-command sounds on “Mission”—completely sold me.
There’s a rare kind of awe certain records give me—the holy shit, this is genius feeling—and lately that’s been coming from The Beach Boys, ABBA, and this album. It pushes me to stretch my imagination, be bigger and stranger, and more unapologetically myself. Honestly, nothing is more inspiring than that.
Tiger La Flor's "Lucky Strike" is out now...
