Music of the Day, 8 March 2024

i was living in twilight

My ancient, secondhand phone started acting up last week; it was bad enough that I hied myself to a few online shops in hopes of finding a decent, relatively inexpensive, unlocked used phone to upgrade to. It arrived late enough last night that I left the task of switching over for today. I’ve been through the process enough that I thought I had everything pretty well in hand.

That was my first mistake.¹ To shorten my long and unremarkable story, I not only needed to go to my local phone company’s store, I ended up with a real new phone, not just a new-to-me phone. Even though I was the only customer in the store when we started troubleshooting, it took over an hour to get everything sorted. And then once I was home, I had the joy of trying to figure out a newish system, logging in to existing accounts, creating a couple of new ones, and getting rid of all the cruft that is automatically installed.

The two bright spots of the entire transaction are: my unusable phone knocked about half the price off the new phone (including what I’d paid for the brick); and today’s MotD started playing on the radio station in my mind while waiting at the store.

I’m not addicted to my phone the way many people are. I don’t use it for the few social-media hangouts I frequent; I don’t have to have it constantly in my hand; I don’t play games on it; and I don’t even store any music on it to listen to. All the same, I did feel like I was in twilight while we were trying to sort out SIM/eSIM compatibility and other issues between three phones. I also noted that it was way easier to get and use a new landline phone back in the day than it is to get a smartphone today. Huzzah for technological advancement!²

“Telephone Line” is the second hit I’ve featured here from Electric Light Orchestra’s (ELO) breakout release, A New World Record. As the album came out when I was almost at peak teenager mode, this song really connected with me. Even though even back then I was a strong introvert, I did go through a short period of competing with my older sister for time on the phone to talk with friends we’d just seen in school. My boyfriend’s parents’ home wasn’t a local call, however, so we very rarely spoke on the phone.

Jeff Lynne’s powerful delivery of his angsty, existential lyrics is sublime. Credit must also be given to the gents who sing those tasty (and too often unappreciated) harmonies and backups: Bev Bevan (percussion); Richard Tandy (keyboards, percussion, electric guitar); and Kelly Groucutt (bass guitar, percussion). These four voices work beautifully together. The music is just as great, starting with the Moog-recreated US phone sounds.

The whole song is exceptionally well done and also deeply evocative of an important transitory period in my life. When it started playing in my mind today, I realized it’s been too long since I’ve listened to any ELO. I really need to buy A New World Record so I can explore some of ELO’s deeper cuts. I have just 1979’s ELO’s Greatest Hits, which I can listen to on repeat with no waning of interest; but I don’t want to risk that changing.

1. You just said that too, didn’t you?

Approximately 15 seconds of that time was invested in deciding what model/color of phone I wanted. I do not care about that crap; I just need to be able to do basic functions on my phone: texts, calls, and email

2. Said with tongue firmly in cheek. I know there’s no comparison in capability between the two devices, but all the same, there’s been enshittification too