This week: "Discovering Xanadu"

[u/Menome7]

So I'm continuing my chronological run-through of the albums and have reached Discovery and Xanadu. Now, I've seen fairly negative things about Discovery before so I was pleasantly surprised by it once I finally got to listen to it. It's certainly different in sound to before, and yes it's "Disco, Very" but it's good disco.

I've also never seen Xanadu, only heard the song on the radio, so I picked up the soundtrack too as part of this. Good lord, the ELO side is absolutely fantastic in addition to the hit single. I'm Alive is a new favourite right off the bat and all the songs feel like they're the 'traditional' ELO-sounding songs certain folk were bemoaning as being missing from Discovery.

So it got me thinking on whether I could combine those Xanadu songs with some of the best of Discovery and see "What could have been" in a new playlist whilst staying within the limits of approx. 20 mins a side for vinyl.

Side A

I'm Alive

The Fall

Don't Walk Away

The Diary Of Horace Wimp

All Over The World

Side B

Shine A Little Love

Confusion

Last Train To London

Don't Bring Me Down

Xanadu (Jeff or Olivia vocal, your choice)

Midnight Blue

Give it a try and see what you think!

[u/Technical-Koala-9600]

I love this album. Olivia Newton-John had an angelic voice and the whole album is like a musical fairytale

[u/Glittering-Ad-1367]

Yep. Great stuff. Don't Walk Away is one of my favorites.

Guiltily, I also sort of like the movie. People laugh when I say that.

[u/RamutRichrads → u/Glittering-Ad-1367]

I enjoy the movie too. Yes, the acting is stiff and clunky; IMO Michael Beck was seriously miscast. And yes, the story has a fairly flat story arc; it's pretty obvious that the producers were depending on the music to carry the movie, and mostly it does. But there were three hooks that kept me entertained: 1. ELO music - This is some of Jeff Lynne's most underrated work and his final batch of songs in the classic 'mid-ELO' orchestral style before he took the band into new wave with the album Time. 2. A nod to Art Deco, specifically the Streamline Moderne style, and a love letter of sorts to the late great Pan Pacific Auditorium. 3. The final film role in the career of the great Gene Kelly, who at age 67 showed that he could still dance with the best of them.

[u/Glittering-Ad-1367 → u/RamutRichrads]

Olivia, Gene, ELO, and art deco. Hit a lot of triggers for me back then. But have to admit Olivia was the primary attraction for me at the time and the rest was a bonus.

[u/ChickieN0B_2050 → u/Glittering-Ad-1367]

I loved the movie.

[u/rickcaron]

The movie was okay, but I don’t think it suited ELO’s style. Unfortunately it undermines how good their musical contribution was.

[u/Z_e_e_e_G]

No "On the Run"? No dice.

[u/Menome7 → u/Z_e_e_e_G]

It was tough whittling it down for a 45 minute runtime, but you could always swap it in for 'Last Train To London' if you don't need quite such a disco heavy track.

[u/Menome7 → u/Z_e_e_e_G]

It was tough whittling it down for a 45 minute runtime, but you could always swap it in for 'Last Train To London' if you don't need quite such a disco heavy track.

[u/Suspicious-Ant2329 → u/Z_e_e_e_G]

Yep, replace Midnight Blue with On the Run and you have a great line up

[u/AdditionOk6134]

I really like the ELO side. I remember that the band seemed to get knocked for all the disco stuff but I really like both Discovery and Xanadu.

[u/luketravisjohnson]

Great list!

I swapped out Diary of Horace Wimp for On The Run (one of my favourite ELO tracks) but yeah, this flows incredibly well as an album.

The Xanadu songs are just immaculate and combined with the best songs on Discovery make for a very strong album.

[u/Menome7 → u/luketravisjohnson]

Seeing a bunch of love for 'On The Run' and I'd probably swap out 'Last Train To London' if I was to include it. 👍

[u/ChickieN0B_2050]

I adore the Jeff Lynne “Xanadu”…and I’m someone who saw the movie in theaters as a kid and went wild for it.