One record at a time: 99. Electric Light Orchestra - Balance of Power

1986 signalled the demise of ELO and "Balance of Power" looked to be the last ever ELO album. I acquired my copy of the vinyl in 2017 from eBay, but I had bought the remastered CD in 2007.

I never quite knew what to make of this record. The artwork couldn't look any more eighties if it tried but, despite some contemporary motifs, this music was still firmly entrenched in a seventies rock tradition.

Jeff's continuing obsession with recording homages to Roy Orbison or employing rockabilly chord progressions weren't likely to interest the people buying "West End Girls" or "Broken Wings" in 1986. The music scene had moved on and contemporary rock albums such as "Invisible Touch" or "So" sound more innovative than "Balance of Power". As a swan song, this was a forlorn effort. Yes, it sold relatively well but you can tell Jeff was simply trying to complete his contractual obligations whilst maintaining some credibility.

The best track on here is "Calling America" and "So Serious" also deserves an honourable mention. "Heaven Only Knows" is a worthy addition to the back catalogue but there is little else of interest. I dislike "Endless Lies" intensely and "Send It" is very weak. ELO seemed to die out with a whimper. 2/5

One Record at a time: 98. Electric Light Orchestra - Secret Messages

I have to admit that by ELO album number ten, I'm growing a little weary. Unfortunately I think the band were also experiencing the same weariness by the time they came to record "Secret Messages" in 1983.

Tellingly this album features much more studio technology than its predecessors and includes the first use of a drum machine on an ELO record (the distinctive hand claps of the Obeheim DMX being especially prominent). Unsurprisingly, drummer Bev Bevan was less than impressed with these developments and labelled the results 'soulless'. Jeff's new found affinity for technology also signalled the final straw for bassist Kelly Groucutt who left during the recording of the album. 

Whilst the emergence of technology was often branded as an artistic concern during the late seventies and early eighties, the worry in our household was purely pecuniary. My father was a professional musician during this period and his music case had a big yellow sticker which read: "Musicians' Union says Keep Music Live!". With the benefit of hindsight it's easy to regard this attitude as a bit hysterical (I never went hungry as a child) but it was a real concern to many in the music business during the early eighties. Whilst I prefer the consistent timing and unerring accuracy of machines, I do have some sympathy for musicians who feared they could be replaced by machines.

Despite the prodigious use of technology, this album is a bit drab to me. I think some of this may be attributable to Jeff's desire to create a double album which was then stymied by the record company and half of the material was dispensed with. 

There are a few standout tracks like "Four Little Diamonds" and "Bluebird" but there is much that is mediocre. My favourite song is "Take Me On and On" which has a brilliant synth refrain and conjurors up images of drifting through space. "Letter From Spain" is an enchanting and reflective song that employs a repeated backing vocal which I suspect is sampled into an AMS DMX-15 80 delay (I have no evidence for this, it is just a guess). All in all this is a more technically advanced album, it's just the tunes are a little lacking. 2/5

One record at a time: 97. Electric Light Orchestra - Time

Having sold his soul to the gods of disco on "Discovery", Jeff Lynne decided to win back credibility in 1981 by hitching his wagon to Star Wars. "Time" is a concept album for the eighties with its galactic theme and synthesiser driven landscapes. Here I am playing an original pressing that I picked up from eBay a few years ago.

As the needle falls, the slightly hokey vocoder prologue is followed by an Oberheim OB-X blasting out the opening bars of "Twilight". This album is clearly going to lean more heavily on the 'electric' than the 'orchestra'.

"Yours Truly, 2095" is a slightly cheesy vision of the future with its talk of hover cars and IBM robots all played at a canter. "Ticket to the Moon" is a slower piano driven ballad that has a good melody and fits nicely with the aesthetic of the album. However it is less obvious how the derivative Roy Orbison styling of "The Way Life's Meant to Be" support the concept. This isn't a bad song but it is a little incongruous. Side one closes with "Another Heart Breaks" which is a grossly underrated instrumental that sounds contemporary even in 2022.

Side two opens with "Rain Is Falling" which is an impressive ballad that features some fantastic synth work and the welcome return of the orchestra. We pull on our flares and get out on the dance floor again with "From the Sun to the World" and things go a bit reggae with "The Lights Go Down". The space concept is resurrected on the catchy "Here Is The News" and the John Lennon pastiche "21st Century Man". The album closes with the relentless rocker "Hold on Tight" and we are returned to earth by a short epilogue. This is a good record but the application of the concept is sporadic and some of the lyrics sound a little contrived to 21st Century ears. 3/5

One record at a time: 96. Electric Light Orchestra - Discovery

Having reached a zenith with their previous album, "Discovery" is where the wheels begin to fall off for ELO. There's an apocryphal story of keyboard player Richard Tandy saying of the album, "Disco? Very!" - and it is. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad album, but it feels like the emergence of disco drove Jeff to create something that fell awkwardly between two camps.

My copy of this record is a first pressing that includes a poster. The poster is in remarkably good condition but the same can not be said of the sleeve or the record which are pretty beaten up. I have no idea why the album sleeve features pictures based around an Arabian theme and they just seem to add to the confused nature of this album.

As the vinyl crunches along the disco tinged pomp of "Shine a Little Love" comes creeping out of the speakers. There's nothing wrong with this composition but the disco motifs mean it sounds dated today. With "Confusion" Jeff delivers his best Roy Orbison impression over the top of a disappointingly derivative backing track.  Things pick up a little with "Need Her Love" which feels like more familiar territory, but the gimmicks of "Diary of Horace Wimp" drag things back down. There is some nice vocoder work on this track but it does strike as being ELO's "Yellow Submarine".

Side two starts with "Last Train To London" which is another disco romp that features some amazing bass by Kelly Groucutt. "Midnight Blue" revives the Roy Orbison pastiche with a little vocoder thrown it to add interest. By the time I have played the unremarkable "On The Run" and "Wishing" I am ready for the album to finish. However, "Discovery" has one last ace up its sleeve in the form of the Status Quo styled rocker "Don't Bring Me Down". The drum loop (yes, it is a loop) and the Groos/Bruce refrain on this track are great, but I can't shake the vision of teenagers with denim flares dancing with their hands in their pockets. God I hated the seventies. 2/5

One record at a time: 95. Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue

In my previous post I said it would take something impressive to top "A New World Record" and what it actually took was a double album. I first bought "Out of the Blue" on CD from the dreaded Britannia Music Club as part of an introductory offer in around 1990. My vinyl copy was purchased from eBay sometime in the last 10 years and the exact combination of label text, run out and sleeve don''t seem to match anything on Discogs at the minute. 

As I haven't played this record since purchasing it, I had no idea it was suffering from some prodigious mould growth. I have complained before about people selling records that have obviously been stored in a shed or leaky loft and it seems my copy has suffered this fate. I initially tried cleaning it with isopropyl alcohol but the mould wouldn't shift. I then put both discs through my trusty Disco-Antistat cleaning machine and that seemed to do the trick. The slight draw back is that the Disco-Antistat cleaning fluid leaves a nasty chalky residue that requires further cleaning with isopropyl alcohol to remove it. Having cleaned the vinyl at least 3 times it actually sounds OK now and there is no sign of the fungus any more.

Mouldy vinyl is not good

This album kicks off with three spectacular pop/rock tracks that suggest there will be an embarrassment of riches here. "Turn to Stone", "It's Over" and "Sweet Talkin' Woman" were all worthy singles as they are catchy and perfectly executed. The mariachi horns of "Across the Border" somehow blend perfectly with Richard Tandy's Moog synths and the driving guitars; its a heady but satisfying mix. Side two opens with the excellent "Night in the City" that somehow moves seamlessly between hard rock and beautiful orchestral arrangements. The piano refrain on "Starlight" is reminiscent of early rock and roll and its a really entertaining and dreamy track. "Jungle" and "Believe Me Now" are the kind of tracks that you would only find occupying space on a double album when some padding is needed. Both tracks are entertaining but let's not pretend they are going to make it to any "Best Of" compilation. The first disc concludes with "Steppin' Out" which features Kelly's vocals prominently. 

Side three of the album is titled "Concerto for a Rainy Day" and features "Standin' In The Rain", "Big Wheels" and "Summer and Lightning". These are all good songs, but they pale in comparison to 'the big one'. I've heard "Mr Blue Sky" a thousand times but can never get bored of it. The version here is superior to the 2012 re-recording as it is replete with the dramatic coda which I regard as integral to the experience. The song asks me to turn over now, so I will.

Side four kicks off with "Sweet Is The Night" which is probably my least favourite song on the album but it remains a high quality composition. More instrumental filler comes in the form of "The Whale" before the most rock track on the album "Birmingham Blues" emerges. The album comes to a close with the wistful "Wild West Hero" but, as I'm not too keen on country music, this falls a bit flat as a finale to what is a stunning album. 4/5

One record at a time: 94. Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record

When I was trawling eBay for a copy of "A New World Record" I came across a listing starting at 99p with no bids. I think I ended up paying a couple of pounds by the time the auction closed. I thought I had won an anonymous repressing in dubious condition. However, when the package arrived I was delighted to find the record was actually a 2016 180g "Legacy Vinyl" pressing still in the cellophane. Here I'm playing it for the first time.

"Tightrope" has an impressive orchestral introduction before a very seventies sounding rock song comes bursting through. I always felt the backing vocals on ELO songs were too loud and raw, but once you become familiar with them you can't imagine them being any other way. The second song is also found on the band's "Greatest Hits" CD that I fell in love with back in the late eighties. "Telephone Line" is just the right mix of catchy melody, synthesizer wizardry and brilliant orchestral arrangement to make it a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. I love the telephone style EQ on the introduction and the arrangement is nothing short of genius. I'm not a fan of traditional rock music but "Rockaria!" is so good it cannot be denied. This is a song that rocks with a smile on its face. "Mission (A World Record)" is a fairly run of the mill song but sporadically explodes into a funk break that Bootsy Collins would be proud of.

We start the flip side with "So Fine" which sounds like prototype Yacht Rock until everything suddenly grinds to a halt for an extend percussion break. It's almost as if there are so many musical ideas in Jeff's head that he's just having to get them all out. Yet anther big hit follows with "Livin' Thing" which revives those wonderful LA session backing vocals. I've read people on the internet interpreting the lyrics in all kinds of crazy ways, but to me this song is expressing a perfectly normal sentiment about love and relationships. "Above the clouds" provides the perfect respite from the driving rock singles with its slower tempo and floating melody. Next Jeff resurrects a track he wrote as part of The Move called "Do Ya". Whilst this is a perfectly executed rendition, in the context of this album, the rawness of certain aspects of the composition make it sound like a retrograde step. "Shangri-La" provides a perfect ending using the sound palette of "Telephone Line" but wrapped around a different melody. There is no doubt that every ELO album has improved upon its predecessor but it would take something very special to top "A New World Record". 4/5

One record at a time: 93. Electric Light Orchestra - Face The Music

I am not sure why I have two copies of "Face The Music" but judging by the surface noise on these records I was probably trying to find one in decent condition. Both records are repressings from the late seventies and neither sound especially good. This lack of audio fidelity is a shame as the music on the album is rather good.

I came to this album quite late as I never really saw the CD on the shelves in the nineties and when I eventually did, the dark underwhelming cover didn't appeal. In fact, this is probably the most disappointing and incongruous sleeve in the ELO back catalogue.

"Fire On High" is a fantastic instrumental that opens with spooky special effects before giving way to a grandiose orchestral section and some amazing acoustic guitar riffs. The sonic fidelity on this recording is another step on from "Eldorado" and Jeff clearly continues to advance his production skills. Second track "Waterfall" is a great song that, like quite a few songs on this album, is driven by a strong piano refrain. The amazing "Evil Woman" is one of the tracks on my original "Greatest Hits" CD that sold me on ELO and I can't help but sing along. It's a seventies answer to "Shout out to my ex" (well sort of). Some great analogue synth work features on the verse of "Nightrider" before the driving chorus arrives. Even Kelly gets to sing some lead vocals here.

Side two opens with "Poker" which initially sounds like a homage to Marc Bolan before the mad synthesizers start and a strangely punk vocal kicks in. This song is a real oddity and I am not sure if it is genius or just appropriating emerging styles. Another hit single comes next, "Strange Magic". There's always been something about the dreamy introduction of this song that captivates me. As Jeff begins to sing you could almost be floating away. "Down Home Town" is a disappointment that sounds like Bob Dylan singing country and western. Maybe Jeff was trying ingratiate himself to the American audience which seemed to appreciate his efforts more than those of his native land. The album closes with "One Summer Dream" which is a mesmerising song that warrants every second of its six minute length. A much neglected and underappreciated gem. 3/5