ELO 2 [AKA: ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA II‎]

ELO's second album, their first after the departure of co-founder Roy Wood and with longtime members Richard Tandy, Mike Alberquerque and Wilfrid Gibson coming in, contains five lengthy tracks, each one longer than its predecessor, with a cover of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven" as its centrepiece.

With its classical introduction, and Tandy's synthesizer breaks, fresh light is brought pleasingly to this well-worn piece, and it has a rousing vibe, with the band obviously having a ball, but a problem remains of being repetitious. It gives the impression of having been recorded once, and then repeated.

"From The Sun To The World (Boogie #2)" is similar. It almost has Lynne matching the great classical composers in melodiousness, but again it seems to repeat itself a bit too much, and the concluding, anti-war piece "Kuiama", is a long composition with the material sort of justifying eleven minutes but it would be one of the bands favorites and one of mine. However, the opening, melodramatic "In Old England Town" is definitely effective.

The strings (two cellos and a violin) are less raw here than on the band's debut, and the synthesizers are more prominent, which is fine. Indeed, it is a worthy album overall, but the songs just don't always justify their lengths, holding it back from being the group's best work.`

4.77

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