Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record

Strings, choirs and wall-to-wall hooks define A New World Record, the 1976 album where Electric Light Orchestra made Jeff Lynne's rock-meets-orchestra vision sound effortless.

Lynne wrote and produced every song, cutting the basic tracks at Musicland Studios in Munich before adding strings and choir in London, with Louis Clark conducting the orchestra. The result is tighter and more melodic than anything they had made before, and it spun off four singles that made ELO a fixture on radio on both sides of the Atlantic.

Telephone Line is the heart of it, a heartbroken ballad that opens with a synthesised ringing tone and carries a doo-wop sweetness straight out of the 50s. Livin' Thing bursts out of a swirl of violins into one of Lynne's catchiest choruses, and Rockaria! playfully drops an operatic soprano into a rock and roll stomp. Do Ya, a rerecording of a song Lynne first cut with The Move in 1972, adds a meaty riff for good measure.

This is the album that cemented ELO's identity for good, lush yet punchy and ambitious without ever turning stuffy. Fans of meticulous 70s pop craftsmanship will find a record that keeps revealing new details, a stray cello line or a buried harmony, with every play.