ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA [AKA: NO ANSWER]

My album entry in the ELO repertoire was El Dorado in 1974. Then I did a reverse engeneering exercise and purchased their previous albums (but I stopped with ELO II). At this time in rock history, it was not common to have a band featuring cello and violins (altough the one hit wonder "Wallace Collection" will impress the world with "Daydream" in 1969);

This line-up will only last the time of one album. I guess that the ego of Wood and Lynne could hardly cope together. Although this album is good, it sounds outdated. There is nothing wrong with that since it was released in 1971, but still, I do not have this impression when I listen to "Meddle", "Nursery" or "ITCOTCK" for instance.

The original album features nine songs. "10538 Overture" is a great opener and is, by far, their best number on this album. It will be featured in their live sets for a long time. "Nellie Takes Here Bow" is already reminiscent of the Beatles. This will be an ELO trademark in later releases (from El Dorado onwards). Jeff being an exceptional songwriter (at least untill 1977). This song ends up with a very nice violin solo and can be considered as the second good song here. It will pave the way for their later work.

Next comes "Battle of Marston Moor". The intro sounds very similar to the "El Dorado Overture" : it is really amazing to compare both tracks. This almost all-intrumental piece has nothing special to offer though. Sounds as an symph improvisation. No melody, no structure. In one word : boring. The next song "1st Movement" is a dull instrumental number. Press next.

"Mr. Radio" starts promising (it clearly announces their later work). The pop orientation of the band is brightly evident. The piano work (almost Wakemanesque) adds a nice symphonic touch to it. A good song. "Manhattan Rumble" is another instrumental without harmony nor feeling (too much classic type music for me).

"Queen of The House" is another good song featured here. Nice violin / cello work for this romantic number. If you like the symph side of ELO (like I do) you will love this track, for sure. The closing number is very emotional (I like it, can't help)! I almost get the shivers when I listen to it (but this feeling will be repeated with an awful lot of ELO tracks). It's a very nice way to close this debut album. As far as I am concerned, it is not a masterpiece but an important step towards much, much better things to come.

Three stars.