ELO PART II: MOMENT OF TRUTH

Moment of Truth was the follow-up album to ELO Part 2's self-titled debut. With this album the band became just a little bit more adventurous while maintaining the classic ELO sound. The orchestra played a more stronger role on this album with two pieces, the Overture and Underture, done entirely by the orchestra. There had not been this much orchestration in an ELO album since Eldorado or Face the Music. The music is still energetic like on the previous release and still contains a fair number of the sappy stuff. Former ELO bassist Kelly Groucutt formally joined the band on their tour for their debut album and thus makes his studio debut on this album. He contributed the interesting song "The Fox," which is about a fox hunt in the eyes of a fox. It has a very different sound, kind of reminding me of the Moody Blues. In fact, several songs on here seem to have a Moody Blues influence to them. It seems this album strayed a bit from Lynne inspirations and moved more towards the group having its own character. Unfortunately, this was the last ELO Part 2 studio album and we'll never know how this group might have evolved.

For the most part, Moment of Truth is chiefly in the pop music vein, with some very slight progressive tendencies appearing here and there. If you liked their debut, you should enjoy this one as well. Two stars since this barely fits any definition of progressive rock.