Electric Light Orchestra
REVIEWS
- THE ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA
- ELO II
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA, (1971)
Rating: 7
Best Songs- 10538 Overture
Worst Song- Manhatten Rumble (49th Street Massacre)
Written by Rob Eustace
Surely one of the most underrated bands of all time opened
their account in 1971 with this mixed bag of experiments and idea's, incredible
in places, incredibly dull in others, whatever you do don't judge this band
on either their first or final album.
Legend leads us to believe that this debut album was written and recorded
at the same time as The Moves glorious swan song (and contractual obligation)
Message from the Country, and Woods solo album Boulders, with tracks destined
for all three albums recorded on the same reels of tape. The major difference
for me between the late period Move and the birth of ELO is the sudden turnaround
in the songwriting stakes. Wood had always been the creative drive behind
the Move crafting catchy pop singles for the mainstream singles market and
braver, heavier, experimental ventures for the album releases, a format he
reverted to post ELO with Wizzard. After joining the Move (from that other
underrated Birmingham combo The Idle Race) Lynne's work on Looking On and
Message from the Country (whilst being impressive) was still clearly being
overshadowed by his more famous and established counterpart.
The Electric Light Orchestra album marked a distinct change in fortunes for
Jeff as he powered his way past Roy who simply lost his way keeping his commercial
face for the excellent Boulders album, and showing his self indulgent, experimental
face for the ELO album, if only he'd mixed a little of the two together we
may have ended up with more even and satisfying set.
The album kicks off with what is now recognised as the very first ELO track
and still for me the best, Lynne's "10538 Overture". It is one of the few
tracks that I never tire of listening to, yes it's heavily "Walrus" influenced
and yes it's got the trademark scraping cello's etc (that appear throughout
this set) but to me this is still the greatest example what can be achieved
by combining (as Mr Lord might have put it) Group and Orchestra. A great start
to any album and a tough act to follow but Wood keeps the pace up with the
first of his medieval style tracks for this set "Look at me Now". Those cello's
are again scraping their way right through this baby but it continues to build
the orchestral feel well behind Woods double tracked vocals. Lynne's "Nellie
takes her Bow" ups the ante once again, Jeff's distorted vocals blend perfectly
with the feel of the track which unfortunately loses it way a little in the
middle with a couple of changes in direction and a few bars of "God Rest Ye
Merry Gentlemen" ( is it not) but Jeff brings it all back together for one
final verse and a truly rousing finish.
Here's where we start to slide, Roy's bona fide orchestral piece "The Battle
of Marston Moor". An instrumental following a spoken introduction that continues
Roy's medieval feel but does absolutely nothing for me. This can be other
reviewers high spot of the album and to his credit Wood does manage to produce
a track that appears to recreate the sound of a battle with its highs and
lows, changes in tempo and swings of mood. For that I elevate "Marston Moor"
from worst track on the album and save that accolade for Lynne's "Manhatten
Rumble" another instrumental that I'm afraid is painfully dull and contains
a silly piano refrain mid course that does nothing to liven up Lynne's weakest
effort on the album. We'll deal with the only other instrumental on the album
while we're in the mood "First Movement" is a more upbeat piece, acoustic
guitars figure here which brings a little relief from the otherwise heavy
orchestral backing, maybe could have been a main player with some lyrics.
"Mr Radio" is the closest we get here to the more familiar ELO sound that
Lynne was to take forward and build on, "Honey Pie" style opening with crackly
sound effects and piano and violins sweep over this pleasant number keeping
Roy's cello's in check. Jeff continues to show Roy the way with "Queen of
the Hours" which along with "10538" makes the best use of the orchestral and
rock combination on the album, a solid, well structured track with no false
endings, changes in tempo, changes direction, simply a tinkling piano mid
way to break things up.
The album closer "Whisper in the Night" is undoubtedly Woods high spot for
the album, a gentle ballad with mellower orchestration and a nice instrumental
passage included. Woods vocals are backed by a choir (no less) but this impressive
closing track is generally more in the style of the material he was keeping
for Boulders
Roy ultimately did everyone a favour by jumping ship after this album, in
my view had he stayed, Wood, Lynne and ELO would have sunk without trace inside
three albums, By leaving and reinventing himself he in turn unshackled Lynne
who had the courage and the belief to carry on and produce some of the great
albums of the 70's before later selling out totally leaving his reputation
irreparably damaged. Wood himself showed signs of a full recovery when he
returned with the awesome Wizzard Brew album, but I'm afraid this was short-lived.
On the whole this is great album, don't start you're ELO collection here but
it's well worth investigating a little later. Scores only a 7 for me but that's
purely a result of the three dull instrumentals included, the rest is quite
simply "the original ELO" and there's not another album in their collection
like this one.
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ELO II, (1973)
Rating: 8
Best Songs- Momma
Worst Song- Roll over Beethoven
Written by Rob Eustace
Most critics must have surely written this band off after the departure of Roy Wood, after all despite being conceived as band of three equals, and despite Lynne writing most of the quality material for the first album Wood was the media's focus at least. Still Lynne was determined and pushed on regardless and finally in the March of 1973 unleashed the second Electric Light Orchestra album on the world suitably titled ELO II.
ELO II was (predictably I suppose) less successful than its predecessor and indeed only charted in the UK for a mere one week. The album is continually disected and destroyed by reviewers who dislike it for variety of reasons, the most common appearing to be that people object to the minimal track listing (5 tracks in all) and inevitably their length. So what if there's only five tracks, so what if the shortest comes in at over six minutes, yes they could have been edited but why, so that room could be made for two or three more of the orchestral instrumentals that padded out the first album, no thank you, this album is just fine as it is.
The album is radically different from the first and moved the band away from the heavier orchestration that was the backbone of the previous set. However this is not immediately apparent as Lynne's breaks down the door with the moody orchestral opening to the first track "In Old England Town". I believe Wood appeared uncredited on parts of this album and my guess is that he he may be kicking around in this track somewhere. Just when you start to think that Lynne's going to be sticking to the previous albums blueprint you are greeted with a sudden change, electric guitars and sweet violins and a general feeling that instruments are complimenting each other and not battling for supremacy as they often did on the first album. The cello breaks are still present and still heavy on "Old England" and Jeff introduces a new vocal style that is buried deep in the mix but works effectively on this menacing opener, a lot different from the following track which I always regard as the birth of ELO as we know them.
"Momma" is the first in the line of Lynne's trademark ballads which quite honestly could have easily slotted into any album up to Out of the Blue in a shorter format. Unusually for a ballad (not of course for this album) "Momma" is stretched over six minutes but worth every second in my book, it's much more of a band sound with subtle orchestral backing, synths are on board this time and Jeff reverts to his now familiar vocal style. The first side closes with for me the weakest track on the album the unconvincing "Roll over Beethoven" which was released in an edited format as a single to bridge the gap between the first two albums. It just simply doesn't work for me I'm afraid, working original material into a orchestrated format is one thing but taking popular Rock and Roll standards and applying the same trick is slightly different. Having said that I've been somewhat impressed when I've heard the "show closing" live renditions of this track, especially good I might add on the recent Zoom tour DVD where
Jeff's extended guitar solo's throughout really liven up the track, Lynne rehashed the same idea again three years later with the dreadful "Rockaria" on A New World Record and once again brought down an otherwise a near perfect album.
The second side upsets people the most with just two tracks on offer, the first of which is "From the Sun to the World" with its piano and synths intro building to the main body of the song. The verses are linked with a delicate piano hook and the track in general is one of the few nods to the first album in its stop start multi part structure.
And so we come to the album closer and longest track on the set "Kuiama", its often described as an epic, well maybe, but to me it's simply a little further taste of what was to come with your more familiar style mid 70's ELO. "Kuiama" constantly gets beaten down for it's naive anti war lyrical content and I can go with that to certain degree, but lyrics aren't everything and this mellow track does not upset me at all by rolling on past eleven minutes.
I personally wish Jeff had extended more of his songs on later albums and I don't regard ELO II as anywhere near the disaster many reviewers claim it is. They may be wrong, I may be wrong, but make your own mind up and don't rule it out as it's certainly streets in front of the any of bands post Discovery output.
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