Out of the Blue

Two LPs of the Beatles as interpreted by a mid-madness Mozart and a god damn robot, Jeff Lynne’s magnum opus is one of the few twofers that justifies its light-years. It’s crammed with enough hits (or potential hits) to stock a radio station for months on its own. There’s a reason “Turn to Stone” and “Mr. Blue Sky” remain classic rock staples — 1977 couldn’t provide enough of a temporal cage to contain their grandeur. If aliens ever arrived and asked for the most glorious pop rock record ever recorded or they’d blow up the planet, you could hand them this and rest assured that you’d just saved the earth.