ELO 2 [AKA: ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA II‎]

I read in ELO`s official website that Roy Wood appears (uncredited) in two songs of this album, playing bass and cello:in "In Old England Town" and in "From the Sun to the World". Apart from this, this new ELO`s line-up now included keyboard player Richard Tandy, who occasionally also played with The Move, not as an official member, playing bass or keyboards. The addition of this very good keyboard player really improved the sound of the band, and he became very inlfuential in the sound of the band as his keyboard arrangements became very identified with ELO`s sound.

I like this album even more than the first. It is still very Progressive Rock in style, less experimental than their first, and with a more unified style in the music, because Jeff Lynne became the only songwriter in the band.

I can hear some of the influence of Roy Wood in "In Old England Town", which has several cellos playing low notes. Tandy plays a good piano in this song.

"Momma" has good lyrics about a young woman who lost her mother and has to learn to live her own life. Here, the cellos and the violin sound like a little "orchestra", reinforced by the Moog sounding like a "brass ensemble". It is a very good song.

I have listened to two versions of "Roll Over Beethoven". The version that I listened in the radio was a bit different, maybe edited for a single. The version included in this album starts with the violin, the cellos and the bass guitar playing the start of Beethoven`s "Fifth Symphony". After this brief introduction, the band starts "rocking" with Jeff Lynne`s guitar. It has a very good arrangement. This song was a hit in the charts.

Side Two of the old L.P. has two long songs, very Progressive, IMO. In both songs Richard Tandy shows his classical music influences in his piano playing. He and Lynne are credited playing Moog in this album, and they used it very well in these two songs. "From the Sun to the World" is more influenced by classical music arrangements, and "Kuiama" is more Prog Rock with a "science fiction story" in style.

The L.P. that I have, originally released by EMI in England, has a different cover design in comparison to the U.S. version. I listened to this album for the first time in 1974, and it was the first album that I listened from ELO, and I still like it.