FACE THE MUSIC

By the time 1975 came around and ELO released Face the Music, the band had nearly completely abandoned their progressive rock roots chiming in with numbers like Evil Woman and Strange Magic. Still, some of the material here would have fit nicely within the prog genre, notably the opener Fire On High (which received a good deal of radio play, and more so decades later after everyone forgot about Strange Magic and Evil Woman), and some other numbers that had slight progressive tendencies like Nightrider, the Moog solo on Poker, and One Summer Dream (probably one of the most beautiful songs Lynne ever composed). The addition of Kelly Groucutt on bass was an improvement over Lynne playing it himself, and maybe even an improvement over De Albuquerque's playing.

Production-wise, Face the Music sounds better than its predecessor Eldorado, but musically it's probably a notch lower since the focus was more on making something popular radio would find appealing. Even so, I still find Face the Music and enjoyable listen the few times I'm in the mood, only occasionally skipping a track here and there in my CD player. Enough so to give it a three star rating. A recommended acquisition for ELO fans, but others should seek out their first three albums first. Good, but hardly essential.