Album Review: Electric Light Orchestra - Time (1981)

I fucking love ELO.  For a long time now, I have argued that they are one of the most underrated bands in history.  Not necessarily the best, mind you.  But as far as I'm concerned, they're one of the greats.  I've reviewed a few of their albums now, and I've listened to this one, Time, before, albeit a while ago now.  And I wasn't entirely sure what to think of it at the time.  I'm much more certain now.  It really is an eccentric album, even by ELO standards, with a greater emphasis on electronics and an Alan Parsons Project prog rock feel in some parts.  There's even less fiddling with strings here than there is with knobs and oscillators - ELO has traditionally been about the amalgamation of both - but the fiddles quite clearly play second fiddle here, if you will pardon the pun.  And it came out at a time where many 60s and 70s act had proven themselves to be well past their prime and struggling to keep up with the pace of what the 1980s demanded from musos in an era defined by an era of aesthetics of futurism and the like.  And even ELO themselves, as innovative and progressive as they were, weren't immune to this phenomenon plaguing many successful 70s hit makers.  It is nowhere near the caliber of jems such as A New World Record or Out of the Blue.  And subsequently, many reviews then and now haven't been so kind in their assessment of this record.  But for ELO fanatics like me, it still has plenty of charm, and its more eccentric aspects are not just forgivable, but embraceable with a bit more attention paid to them.  Side one is the more solid side here, with tracks like "Twilight" and "Yours Truly, 2095" being my top picks, with "Here is the News", and "Hold on Tight" being the best side two has to offer.  This is really an album for ELO fans, but I hope everyone else comes to see the underrated record that it actually is.  B+

Album Review: Electric Light Orchestra - Face the Music (1975)

In thinking about what to expect from listening to this album, I must admit I was caught between two expectations - on one hand I was expecting it to be a dud, paling in comparison with the likes of A New World Record and Out of the Blue, both excellent albums and both among some of the best albums by any band or artist that you can expect to hear.  On the other hand, I was expecting some more of that Jeff Lynne magic that made the aforementioned albums so damn great.  The latter expectation quickly paid off, and what I'm hearing is remarkably good, bordering on brilliant, in fact.  If there was any one album that could best make the statement that ELO is an underrated band, it would certainly be this one.  No fillers, no boring songs, all good, sometimes very good numbers to be found here.  Weaker songs, yes.  But crap?  No.  Not by a long shot.  "Strange Magic" and "Evil Woman" are the big hits here, and as good as they are, I'm gravitating toward "Poker" and "Nightrider" as being the best two songs on this record.  "Waterfall" and "Down Home Town" are also pretty good, too.  Not a rubbish album by any means.  And you can trust Jeff Lynne to mix a classical string section, synthesizers and Beatlesque songwriting  together and create a masterpiece, as he has done spectacularly well, time and time again.  A very good record.  A-

Album Review: Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue (1979)

Yeah, I've already written a review for an Electric Light Orchestra album this year, I know.  But the album I'm listening to here - for the first time in its entirety, I might add - is Out of the Blue, and bloody hell, is it fantastic.  I always revered A New World Record and Discovery, but they pale in comparison to this gem.  This is very easily one of the best double albums I've heard, if not one of the best albums in general, and the afternoon that I decided to sit down and listen to it in full, I'm pleased to say, is one of the best as well.  I cannot find ONE single song to find fault with here.  I would be more than happy to play this from start to finish over and over again.  "Turn to Stone", "Sweet Talkin' Woman" and "Mr. Blue Sky" are the ones everybody knows and should love, but everything else - well, a musical tour de force is the first thing that springs to mind.  ELO have always been masters at blending Beatlesque pop/rock with classical strings, and this here is the creme de la creme of their catalog.  "Across the Border" is another song I've known for quite a while too, but there's even more to drool over - "Big Wheels", "Sweet is the Night", "Wild West Hero" and "Summer and Lightning" are fantastic too, and that's after some pretty painstaking decision making.  Some critic reviews for this record were less than favorable - the mind boggles at times.  This is a new favorite of mine.  Listen to it, or bust!  A+

Album Review: Electric Light Orchestra - Balance of Power (1986)

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

Album Review: Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record (1976)

I've just finished listening to ELOs landmark 1976 record, A New World Record.  And boy has this album blown me away. ELO themselves have long impressed me with some of the hits they managed to produce in their history - some of which are of course here on this album, but this album has gained the honor of being one of the very, very few albums that I can listen to comfortably from start to finish.  If you extract the best known hits - "Livin' Thing", "Rockaria" and "Telephone Line", you're left with an album replete with songs that in no way could ever be called fillers.  They are masterpieces in their own right.  The album itself, upon playback of the opening track, "Tightrope", comes across as a concept album, although it isn't one, and every song seems to fit in harmoniously with one another, as if the entire track list were one.  It really is a magnificent piece of work, and should be rated far higher than it is.  "So Fine", "Do Ya" and "Shangri-La" are just three of the nine great songs that make up this classic album.  Mixing rock, pop and classical never sounded "so fine" to me.  Magnifique!  A

Album Review: Electric Light Orchestra - Discovery (1979)

Mixing classical music with rock and pop, in theory, is a horrible idea. It's like getting a neutered three-legged chihuahua belonging to a socialite to hump a feral Maine coon cat with epilepsy and a festering case of ringworm . They are completely two different genres of music on two opposite sides of the spectrum, they share little in common instrument wise, and the people who like them want the other party either jailed or euthanized. How could you possibly mix cellos and violins with the even lesser old-school stylings of Chuck Berry? Well, Chuck Berry came up with the song, recorded it, made it a hit, and 20 odd years later a Brummie band by the name of Electric Light Orchestra would go one step further and put the Beethoven back into "Roll Over Beethoven." And despite the threat of annihilating all matter in the known universe, it works out brilliantly.

Now, ELO's 1979 hit Discovery is a shining example of the musical genius of Jeff Lynne and Co. Some of the better known radio hits are on here: "Shine a Little Love", "The Diary of Horace Wimp", "Last Train to London" and "Don't Bring Me Down." And coupled with the likes of "Confusion" and "On the Run", make for a ideal starter album for the ELO-curious. It's not a A-grade album, somehow it fails to project that kind of aura, yet it's one that you would hastily retrieve if your house was burning down. Some of the tracks have that Beatle-like feel to it (Jeff Lynne being a major Beatles fanatic, apparently), in particular "The Diary of Horace Wimp", and overall it has that very British sound to it that makes ELO's music so fantastic. All up, it's as fun as a cheeky root in the park without a condom. B+