#sorry but epic cannot compare with the original here imo

[celeste-fitzgerald]

On The Third Day - ELO (album review/fangirl session)

Hello, I am back with another review - and a new profile pic (Hugh my beloved). As always, these are just my own personal opinions! Also, since I didn't specify in my review of the last album, for most of these I'm just doing reviews of the original releases (since that's what's on spotify. Secret Messages will be an exception, but that's still quite a ways away haha).

Now, I'm going to (maybe?) be controversial and use the US cover image here because the UK cover makes me laugh so hard. I'm sorry, I just can't take it seriously lmao (and yes I know it's a fold-out thing, but that does NOT fix how fucking blurry that photo of Jeff is).

Ocean Breakup / King of the Universe: 6/10 Ooh. I will begin by saying that 90% of the time when I listen to ELO, I just stick the massive ELO playlist on shuffle. But as I do these reviews, I listen to the albums from start to finish. And god damn, this song makes so much more sense listening this way. As an album opener, it's pretty darn solid! Starts off with a very strong, dramatic instrumental, then flows right into the equally epic King of the Universe section. Not really a song I enjoy that much as a stand-alone piece, but it's very effective as an opener!

Bluebird Is Dead: 6/10 Wow, now that I'm sitting down and intentionally listening to this one instead of just having it in the background, I'm noticing so much more about it. Like, the whole instrumental section at 2:30 with that really cool keyboard sound - I genuinely do not recall hearing that until just now, it completely slipped my attention. But it's super cool! Overall, this one sounds quite Beatle-y to me. Shocking, right? :P

Oh No Not Susan: 5/10 There are parts of this song that I enjoy a lot, and parts that are just a bit "meh" to me. Near the start of the song and at the very end, the fast-paced rising line with the violin is superb, I love that sound. But compared to that, the rest of the song is mildly disappointing to me. But, I love how they managed to take that super intense section and transition it to the much calmer section and make it flow naturally. It works, and it's nice.

New World Rising / Ocean Breakup Reprise: 5/10 Damn, the instrumental bits in all of these songs are no joke. Honestly I kind of keep finding myself wishing for Jeff to shush so I can hear the instruments lmao. This one's also a pretty good showcase for Jeff's falsetto at some parts. But yeah, to be totally honest, if they had just made this one a full instrumental, I think I'd like it a lot more.

Showdown: 8/10 Apparently only on some versions of the album, but I can't leave out this one. oKAY right off the bat, I haven't paid much attention to the bassline in this song before, but I'm hearing it now and it is GREAT. Fabulous job, Mr. Albuquerque. Overall just a really solid song, I love it.

Daybreaker: 9/10 Hell yeah, give me that sweet sweet instrumental. Richard Tandy carrying the band and doing a damn fine job of it. This one's super fun to listen to, and the strings are marvelous in it, too.

Ma-Ma-Ma Belle: 7/10 This one keeps growing on me more every time I hear it. It rocks hard, man. The guitar is great, and Jeff making his voice all raspy fits really well. One of the stronger ones of the album, imo. oH SHIT wait I just paid attention to the outro of the song, it's kinda creepy and I love it omg.

Dreaming of 4000: 8/10 Another of my top songs from the album that I enjoy more and more each time. I love the syncopated vocal line in the verses, and I really love the chorus too. Though....I just looked up the lyrics for the first time and I cannot for the life of me tell what this is about. (But I'm generally pretty shit at understanding what lyrics mean unless they're super straight forward, so that might just be a Me problem lmao.)

In the Hall of the Mountain King: 3/10 Eh. I'm not really sure why ELO did a version of this song. It's not bad, but I'd rather hear ELO stuff. Though I do enjoy Bev's drumming here...but that's about it lmao.

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Overall: 7/10 If I take any random individual song from this album to listen to on its own, with a few exceptions it would just be kind of average (in my opinion). BUT. As an album, this is super solid. The previous two albums had some good stuff on them, but they felt a bit scattered. This one, on the other hand, feels really cohesive to me, and it's definitely a better experience to listen to it straight through rather than just picking a few songs here and there. This is where ELO is starting to hit their stride, and things are about to get damn good.