Love this album
Not necessarily chart topping hits, but very unique & enjoyable songs to listen to none the less. Great collection of ELO at their best. This has always been one of my favorite ELO albums to listen to from beginning to end.
This one hasn't aged well
I'm a huge ELO fan from way back, and I've just recently been listening to their albums for the first time in many years. NOTE: I meant to give this album 3 stars, but accidentally gave it 4. I can't comment on the CD version of this album because I only have it on vinyl.
I loved "Discovery" when it came out (I turned 13 that year), but I have to admit that it has aged poorly, more so than any of my other ELO albums. The disco sound is too strong on some songs ("Shine A Little Love," "Last Train to London," and "On the Run"--all of which used to be favorites). There are three ballads: "Need Her Love," "Midnight Blue," and "Wishing. " The only one I ever liked much was "Midnight Blue," but now they all sound corny and weak, especially "Need Her Love. " The only song on the album that completely holds up after all these years is "Don't Bring Me Down," which is, was, and always will be a stomping pop music monster, somewhat in the vein of their earlier hit, "Do Ya. "
On the plus side, ELO was at the height of its craft when this album was made. They knew how to emphasize a good hook, and the vocal harmonies and overall musicianship are excellent. If you love ELO, this album will be worth your while, but if you are just getting into them, you will do better to start with "Out of the Blue," which came out just before this one and has more of a spacey prog rock feel. "Discovery" took them a little too far into the realm of pure pop. .
One of ELO's best ever albums but not THE best!
For one thing, this has been remastered by Jeff Lynne himself with 3 extra tracks and liner notes also written by Jeff plus the lyrics as well. That honour has to go to "Time" in my opinion but still this album is very strong on its own merits. I actually hate "Don't Bring Me Down" but "Last Train To London" is one of my all-time favourite tracks. By the way, "Diary of Horace Wimp" isn't as bad as all that and it has some interesting musical ideas and was always meant to be a kind of musical joke so don't take it so seriously. All the other tracks are good working examples of good songwriting and melody irrespective of genre and even disco, done tastefully is good music.
Now we get in this version a mini-lp replica sleeve gatefold design which is rather well done as well. All the lyrics in both English and Japanese are included as well as a mini poster of the band as well. The sound quality isn't an improvement over the 2001 re-release and this is essentially the same package sound quality-wise as this release except for the mlps design and so if you already have the 2001 remastered version and if you are not an mlps fan, then I see little point in getting this. If, however, you don't have the earlier remastered version, then this represents a good upgrade.
Recommended. .
Very good Album
this Album has good relaxing tunes to assure to smooth the soul and sprit. I remember purchasing this Album back in 1977 when i was a 10th grader in high school. i still have the LP in mint condition. must have if you like Jeff Lynn and his band memeber.
The beginning of the end
(I had only seriously begun to pay attention to the top 40 that spring, and had only bought 45s up to that point; I owned a grand total of 3 LPs, all of which had been given to me as presents, and maybe a couple of cassettes. In the fall of 1979, I had just turned 11 years old, and had not only just been given one record for my birthday, but also had received money which I then used to buy the first vinyl LP I ever bought. ) It was the very beginning of my long history (27 years now) as a collector.
That first LP was ELO's Discovery. All that spring and summer, I had been hearing the various singles from that album ("Shine a Little Love," "Confusion," "Don't Bring Me Down" and "Last Train to London") on my favourite radio station of the time (WIGY 105. 9 FM, in the Bath/Brunswick area in Maine), and so when the opportunity came to purchase this record, I jumped on it. Needless to say, I knew nothing at the time of Jeff Lynne's Beatles influence, although I was a huge Beatles fan--still am to this day; they will always be the Gods of Rock 'n' Roll in my heart--and it probably would have raised his stock considerably for me. In the months to come, I would buy copies of ELO's Greatest Hits and Out of the Blue (mine being a cutout copy on United Artists that cost me just $4. 99; this was a bargain for a double LP in early 1980). In the meantime, I played Discovery as often as I could, and I loved it all.
Fast forward to 2001. Sony made their first attempts at catalogue remasters of ELO's albums; along with the classic Eldorado, their three albums from 1979-83 (Discovery, Time, and Secret Messages) were also remastered and reissued. Wishing to rediscover a favourite of my 'tweenie years, I bought the remastered Discovery on CD. 22 years on, I realised that Thomas Wolfe was right--you can't go home again. . . and even if you could, nothing would be the same. Your tastes change, and mine certainly had. Here's my adult synopsis of Discovery:
Only 3 of this album's 9 tracks are truly essential--"Shine a Little Love," "Last Train to London" (which is *not* instrumental, by the way--there are vocals and lyrics) and "Don't Bring Me Down" all keep things moving along nicely, even if "Shine a Little Love's" bridge rings a bit twee these days. Three more tracks--"Confusion," "The Diary of Horace Wimp" and "On the Run"--are entertaining and move alone nicely, but I wouldn't rate them among this album's best tracks, just a little less painful than the other 3--"Need Her Love," "Midnight Blue" and "Wishing. " Of the final 3, "Need Her Love" is embarrassing in its twinkly saccharine-ness, which include unbearable naive-sounding lyrics and sweet synth arrangements (sweet enough to raise your blood sugar to dangerous levels!), thus making it the worst offender of the lot. The other two are saccharine throwaways, just bad enough to be memorable. What was forgivable at 11 isn't so at 37, when your perceptions have sharpened and your inner self hardened a bit against the depredations of the world.
On the whole, this was truly the beginning of the end for ELO. They had pared themselves down to just a quartet--Jeff Lynne, Bev Bevan, Richard Tandy and Kelly Groucutt--having dropped the string players after Out of the Blue (on which you can, of course, see trouble just over the horizon). It makes some sense that Bev would sub on the drums for Black Sabbath on a couple of tours a few years later; perhaps even he needed some meat after this bit of cotton candy.
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