Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever (89)

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01 - Free Fallin'
02 - I Won't Back Down
03 - Love Is a Long Road
04 - A Face In The Crowd
05 - Runnin' Down A Dream
06 - Feel A Whole Lot Better
07 - Yer So Bad
08 - Depending On You
09 - The Apartment Song
10 - Alright For Now
11 - A Mind With A Heart Of Its Own
12 - Zombie Zoo


Although Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) found the Heartbreakers regaining their strength as a band and discovering a newfound ease at songcraft, it just didn't sell that well.

Perhaps that factor, along with road fatigue, led Tom Petty to record his first solo album, Full Moon Fever. Nevertheless, the distinction between "solo" and "Heartbreakers" is a fuzzy one because Full Moon Fever is essentially in the same style as the Heartbreakers albums; Mike Campbell co-wrote two songs and co-produced the record, and he, along with Benmont Tench and Howie Epstein, all play on the album.

However, the album sounds different from any Heartbreakers record due to the presence of former Electric Light Orchestra leader Jeff Lynne.

Electric Light Orchestra - Electric Light Orchestra II (73)

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1 In Old England Town (Boogie, No. 2) [Boogie # 2]
2 Mama
3 Roll Over Beethoven
4 From the Sun to the World (Boogie, No. 1) [Boogie # 1]
5 Kuiama

Cut during the fall of 1972, Electric Light Orchestra II was where Jeff Lynne started rebuilding the sound of Electric Light Orchestra following the departure of Roy Wood from the original lineup.

It was as personal an effort as Lynne had ever made in music, showcasing his work as singer, songwriter, guitarist, sometime synthesizer player, and producer, and it is more focused than its predecessor but also retains some of the earlier album's lean textures. Lynne, drummer Bev Bevan, bassist Mike D'Albuquerque, and keyboardist Richard Tandy comprise the core of the band, with two cellists and a violinist sawing away around them.

There were holes in their sound that made the group seem somewhat ragged, as on the pounding "In Old England Town (Boogie #2)"; Lynne's singing would also have to develop, and some of the material also showed the need of an editor.

On the other hand, "From the Sun to the World (Boogie #1)" was a succinct progressive rock workout, and "Kuiama" was a decent showcase for the different sides of the group that worked about as well as any 11-minute progressive rock track of the period.

But the very fact that the group's cover of "Roll Over Beethoven" was the hit off of this album also showed how far Lynne had to go as a songwriter — there's nothing else here one-half as good as that as a song, and the fact that the band attacked it like a buzzsaw made it one of the most bracing pieces of progressive rock to make the charts.
As a patchwork job, the album holds up well, and it and the single did go a long way toward getting them the beginnings of an audience in America.

Electric Light Orchestra - Out Of The Blue (77)

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1 Turn to Stone
2 It's Over
3 Sweet Talkin' Woman
4 Across the Border
5 Night in the City
6 Starlight

7 Jungle
8 Believe Me Now
9 Steppin' Out
10 Standin' in the Rain
11 Big Wheels
12 Summer and Lightning
13 Mr. Blue Sky
14 Sweet Is the Night
15 The Whale
16 Birmingham Blues
17 Wild West Hero

The last ELO album to make a major impact on popular music, Out of the Blue was of a piece with its lavishly produced predecessor, A New World Record, but it's a much more mixed bag as an album.

For starters, it was a double LP, a format that has proved daunting to all but a handful of rock artists, and was no less so here.

The songs were flowing fast and freely from Jeff Lynne at the time, however, and well more than half of what is here is very solid, at least as songs if not necessarily as recordings.

"Sweet Talkin' Woman" and "Turn to Stone" are among the best songs in the group's output, and much of the rest is very entertaining.

The heavy sound of the orchestra, however, as well as the layer upon layer of vocal overdubs, often seem out of place.

All in all, the group was trying too hard to generate a substantial-sounding double LP, complete with a suite, "Concerto for a Rainy Day."

The latter is the nadir of the album, an effort at conceptual rock that seemed archaic even in 1977.

Another chunk is filled up with what might best be called art rock mood music ("The Whale"), before you finally get to the relief of a basic rocker like "Birmingham Blues."

Even here, the group couldn't leave well enough alone — rather than ending it on that note, they had to finish the album with "Wild West Hero," a piece of ersatz movie music that adds nothing to what you've heard over the previous 65 minutes.

In its defense, Out of the Blue was massively popular and did become the centerpiece of a huge worldwide tour that earned the group status as a major live attraction for a time.

Out of the Blue was reissued in 2007 as a 30th Anniversary Edition with new photos, liner notes, and three bonus tracks, including "The Quick and the Daft," "Latitude 88 North," and a home demo of "Wild West Hero."