Come the 1980s many bands and artists were quickly cashing in on the new electronic, synthesized sound. Some pulled it off quite well, some pulled it off poorly, others got mixed results. Electric Light Orchestra, a band whom we all know was no stranger to synthesizers, decided for their 1986 album Balance of Power to ditch the string section altogether and jump aboard the new wave bandwagon. The results are - well, depending on who you ask - oscillating between awful and mixed. I myself tend to gravitate toward the latter. If there's anything that I would criticize the most about this album is the sporadic cheesiness and below par songwriting and less about the actual choice of equipment used. "Heaven Only Knows" the album's opening track, is musically very average but rather poor lyrically speaking. In contrast the second song "So Serious" improves markedly, and is perhaps what I might even term a "proto-Wilbury" premonition of sorts. This newfound momentum, however, is soon lost as song number three, "Getting to the Point" finds itself slipping back down into cheesy status. "Calling America" is the only song here that would find itself appearing on the ELO greatest hits compilation records, and for good reason - it is by far the best song on the album. In concluding this critique, would I recommend newbies listen to this record? Absolutely not. Stick to A New World Record, Eldorado, Out of the Blue or even Discovery, but for most fans this is predominantly a collection filler. My love of the eighties and subsequent tolerance for even its more cheesier moments spare this album from a far more harsh criticism. Meh, it could be worse. B
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