Electric Light Orchestra - Discovery (1979) (Vinyl)

The Electric Light Orchestra had actually lost money on their most recent tour, a grandiose jaunt that featured a giant replica of their iconic album-cover spacecraft. They'd also reached the end of a creative road with the out-sized construction – and success – of 1977's platinum-selling Top 5 smash Out of the Blue.
It was time to cut back – in this case literally. Discovery arrived on May 31, 1979, with a streamlined sound, and a winnowed-down lineup.
"I just lost my way, totally," Jeff Lynne told Rolling Stone in 1990. "In the beginning, ELO was supposed to be very avant-garde, very off the wall. And then, once I started having hits, it drifted from that. Suddenly, the record companies and managers were clamoring for hits. And I tried to cater to the xxxers. And it grew into this monstrous thing that I didn't want. I got to feel trapped, and I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. It was a xxxin' drag.”
He started by trimming the lineup to a foursome also featuring drummer Bev Bevan, keyboardist Richard Tandy and bassist Kelly Groucutt. Discovery became the first ELO project without an orchestral component, marking the departures of Mik Kaminski, Hugh McDowell and Melvyn Gale.
ELO engineer Reinhold Mack played a key role in this shift. At one point, he told Lynne, "Let's do away with the strings, let's do away with the choirs and let's just boogie out for a night."
Bevan was also itching to try a more straight-ahead sound. "I got bored with it too," he told the Dayton Daily News in 1979. "In the studio, it's very restricting to work with this band. ... I've tried doing more drum fills to liven it up, but when you put the orchestra and choir on top, it starts to sound a mess – so I have to keep it real simple. I've gotten to the stage where I don't even enjoy recording anymore. It's so mechanical."
Then Lynne started trying something musically, a sound associated with contemporary acts like the Bee Gees rather than with the Beatles, ELO's most celebrated influence. The band's disco period was underway – and it started out with a bang. All backing tracks were laid down in a matter of days, once the group gathered for sessions in March and April 1979. After that, a massive post-production process got underway before Lynne finally filled in the lyrics.
"When everything was overdubbed to the hilt and the tracks were completely full, then Jeff would say, 'Okay, I'll have a shot at it,' and start singing," Mack told Sound on Sound in 2013. "That's just the way he worked. There weren't any guide vocals. In fact, the backing vocals would almost always be recorded before the lead vocal, which was the last thing to go on."
This abbreviated time frame would seem to indicate that they'd become a tighter-knit group. But Discovery – and, more importantly, ELO – had very much become a Jeff Lynne presentation. The problem was, nobody else knew just what his larger plan was.
"It was all inside Jeff's head,” Mack explained. "He'd tackle the backing line by line, saying, 'This goes here,' and 'Let's put a harmony on that.' Then I might say, 'Can you do a descending high harmony?' and he might say, 'Oh yeah, that's a pretty good idea! Let's try it.' Either it would be retained or he'd come up with something completely different, and the whole would evolve out of whatever he had in his mind."
The album's detours into the funk-infused dance music of the day ("Shine a Little Love," "Last Train to London") led Tandy to memorably quip that they should have called it Disco Very. Still, Bevan made no excuses.
(Full version - ultimateclassicrock.com/electric-light-orchestra-discovery)