Comments for Electric Light Orchestra, Face The Music

Fabulous!

This is the album where elo really starts to slide. I liked this one and their next one, but everything from out of the blue on really stinks. jm2cw

"Face The Music," along with "Eldorado," is where Jeff Lynne''s post-Abbey Road vision really starts to gel. "Waterfall" has a wonderful string arrangement reminiscent of "Imagine"-era John Lennon, and "One Summer Dream" is sort of a "Strawberry Fields Forever"-type summer idyll. Great stuff, especially for the 70''s, when the Beatles'' absence really left pop in the lurch. This album is not all loving Fabs tribute though; the funky "Evil Woman" and ripping "Poker" round out a great pop layer cake. Jeff Lynne has, for some unfathomable reason, gotten a bad rap for his production style; a fresh listen to this album and other 70''s ELO classics should dispel that. It''s only fitting that he should help the Beatles "reunite" for the two Anthology singles; he helped their high musical standards survive to flourish in another decade.

Contains "Fire On High," a weird instrumental that starts as a religious chant and changes drastically midway. "Evil Woman" hit number nine in the US. Album originally released on United Artists UA-LA546-G.