ELO 2 [AKA: ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA II‎]

I remember when I was a teenager. In a sale, I bought a double cd of Concerto for Group and Orchestra by Deep Purple. I recorded it on MC cassette and when I went on a trip by car with my father, I played it. What expectations did I have! And in the end I thought: "That was it?!" That's not the way you make an album with an orchestra! Anyway, I felt similar disappointment with this album. I had great expectations- I had known some famous songs before and then I came across this album from "the prog era", 8-minute-long songs, I thought it would be something, but it is not so good.

I want to be brief (even though I probably won't be). Without description of each song I'm going to say what I find bad about this album and then what I find good. Well, the songs tend to lack intuition and flow- that kind of creativity. Instead, I hear kind of mathematical structures like in In Old England Town where there is some number of parts that are randomly put together to fill in the 7- minute time range. The deviations from the Chuck Berry core in Roll over Beethoven seem to me like helplessly groping for something sophisticated ending with a poor filler.

All the songs are basically too long. Either the lack of ideas or the insecurity to confidently develop those ideas make the songs repetitive, without gradation. I sometimes trace too much noise as in In Old England Town or From the Sun to the World that tries to hide something, maybe those insecurities in the composing. It's like "Let's make it prog, long compositions, tempo and melody changes, some violin and guitar solos, but actually I'm not sure how to do it and maybe, just maybe, I don't want to do it this way." Guitar solos are especially helpless. Roll Over Beethoven- that's a hit, no doubt, but 8 minutes is far too much, like Hocus Pocus by Focus. Take We will Rock You - there's no use making it 10 minutes long. (Except for Vanilla Fudge)

Then there are blank parts, Mama is good example, there are places where there are attempts to stir some melody up, but it goes halfway through, without balls and then it is cut by the main melody. This relates to the whole album being blurry, dull, in a way that it is not strong, with clear features, with drive, with exact idea where the album goes. There's a lot of good work done, but it is not drawn to the end.

The fusion of classical music with rock is best seen in Roll over Beethoven, which is perfect idea. Dark cellos make great and original atmosphere, I like the raw sound ELO had before Eldorado, the wild sound of Bev Bevan's drums. But the reason why to listen to this album are From the Sun to the World and Kuiama. They both are kind of collages that go through different melodies and genres with piano, violin and cellos. The violin and cello part in Kuiama is the best moment of the album for me, but still, there's something missing. I miss the confidence, the violinist should be stating "look at me!", but it is rather insecure statement "This is my 2 minutes of the album, so please listen."

So to sum up, comparing with it's older brother and the younger one. 1st album is braver, crazier, more experimental, more interesting and provoking thanks to Roy Wood. His departure is felt on this album. And the third album, as some guys said here, is more accessible, but is free from the disadvantages of this album. If you are choosing between the first three albums, start with the third one, then taste the first one, and then complete your experience with this one.