This is probably ELO’s most schizophrenic album, leaping from the use of the F word in “Oh No, Not Susan” to the lyrics of “Dreaming Of 4000”, which don’t know if they’re trying to be an environmental protest or some kind of vaguely Christian rock. ELO singer/guitarist/songwriter Jeff Lynne has since commented that he doesn’t know what he could have been thinking, and I have to agree with him there. But there are several good things about this album. The instrumental overture, “Ocean Breakup”, is as driving and ominous as “King Of The Universe” is…well, just plain weird. (Lovely to listen to, but weird.) “New World Rising” sounds like an embryonic “Mr. Blue Sky” in the making – same subject, and a very similar sound – and “Bluebird Is Dead”, in spite of the lyrics, sounds like something the Beatles might have turned out had they 
lasted past 1970. All in all, it’s a very strange and uneven album. I’ve grown to like most of it, though there are still songs that I rarely go back and listen to. And I still don’t know what Jeff Lynne could have been thinking…
- Ocean Breakup / King Of The Universe (4:06)
- Bluebird Is Dead (4:22)
Oh No, Not Susan (3:28)
- New World Rising / Ocean Breakup Reprise (4:04)
- Showdown (4:09)
- Daybreaker (3:50)
- Ma-Ma-Ma Belle (3:52)
- Dreaming Of 4000 (5:02)
- In The Hall Of The Mountain King (6:33)
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