Listmeister listens -- Electric Light Orchestra

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  • #61
  • Posted: 10/07/2016 23:12
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We're not done yet.


Starting Up by Roy Wood

BEA Ranks
622nd of 1987 (between Spanish Fly by Lisa, Lisa, and Cult Jam and Too Late to Cry by Alison Krauss)
6,028th of 1980s; 44,618th of All Time

Ranked highest by iancrockert141, 21st of 1987.

We haven't heard from Roy Wood for awhile. So, let's hear what he's up to. I'm expecting something very 50's sounding with some updated instrumentation, like several Move songs, and a lot of his last few albums.

[Record starts playing]. Okay, this is straightforward 1980's. Pretty typical 1987 rock. I recognize those synthetic percussion rhythms. Actually. this is pretty bland.

[Time passes as the record plays] Right, the record. I guess I haven't been paying attention.

[On Top of the World begins playing] Wait a minute.... Now, that's what I'm talking about 50's sound updated a bit. That's a good one. The next song, Ships In the Night, is also pretty good.

Except for those two songs, this is basically a middle-of-the-road late 1980's album. No real indications of the brilliance that Mr. Wood has demonstrated in the past.
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  • #62
  • Posted: 10/26/2016 22:09
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The Adventures of Richard Tandy and Dave Morgan


Earthrise by Tandy & Morgan
BEA Ranks: None.
Ranked highest by Listmeister (25th of 1980's).

With all the emphasis of Jeff Lynne's musicianship and producership and song-writery-ness, the other members of the band were feeling sort of left out (I would imagine). When a band breaks up, one can see from their solo works how each contributed to the band. We saw that with the first few post-Beatles Beatles' albums, and in the late 80's, we start to see this with the artists formerly known as Electric Light Orchestra.

Tandy, ELO's keyboard player, teamed up with Dave Morgan, who had been touring with ELO since 1981, and who had sung some of the background vocals on 'Secret Messages'. They formed "The Tandy-Morgan Band" and recorded a concept album along the same vein as "Time", this time about space travel. It was released in 1986.

You can hear how Tandy influenced the musical direction of ELO, especially on Time, which this album most resembles. It's not a sequel, exactly, but the two albums are, at the very least. siblings. The songs are pretty interesting, with plenty of musical intricacy.

Later they released an album of leftovers and other songs they recorded after Earthrise, it was called "The BC Collection." It's not as good, and feels unfinished. It sounds like any other 80's pop music, the sort that would be the soundtrack for a teen romantic comedy that did not star anyone you'd ever heard of.
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  • #63
  • Posted: 12/28/2016 20:36
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The Tale of Otis Wilbury


The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 by The T...g Wilburys
BEA Ranks: 18th of 1988; 147th of 1980's; 925th Overall.
Ranked highest by Romanelli and JuicyJohnPink (8th of All Time out of 100)


The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3 by The T...g Wilburys
BEA Ranks: 95th of 1990; 1126th of 1990's; 5,562nd Overall.
Ranked highest by Clouds2095 (30th of All Time out of 50).

In 1988, our friend Mr. Lynne went to America, changed his name to Otis Wilbury, and with his new-found brothers (the erstwhile George Harrison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and Roy Orbison) started making music as the Travelling Wilburys. They produced an album called Traveling Wilburys, Volume 1. Tragically, Roy Orbison died shortly after the album was recorded. They soldiered on without him, and his voice was missed on their second album, called Volume 3.

We are not here to review these albums. (Except to say that Volume 1 was unbelievably awesome, maybe the best ever made by a legit superband). We are here to review Otis's contribution to the Wilbury legend. As with any good band, it's impossible to really separate one band members contribution from another's, so, full disclosure, I'm mostly just guessing here.

Volume 1. There's a delicious moment of harmony with George Harrison on 'Handle With Care', on the line "I've been up-tight and I've made a mess / but I'll clean it up myself, I guess." His first obvious contribution is on "Rattled", an 80's/neo-50's style rock number for which he provides the vocals. Margarita (sung by Dylan) is the most ELO-sounding track in the catalog, especially in the intro. "Heading for the Light" has some ELO-esque harmonies also. He sings the second verse of "The End of the Line", a pleasant ensemble pop/rock track.

Volume 3, as I mentioned before, suffered from the loss of Roy Orbison. All though Bob Dylan took up a lot of the slack, Jeff also had more to do on this album. He drives the rock and roll on "She's My Baby", a musical sequel to "Rattled". "Inside Out" has some more Harrison/Lynne harmonics on the bridges. "New Blue Moon" features Lynnian vocals as well.

"Roll up your rug, dust your broom, ball the jack, howl at the moon. Ain't never been nothing quite like this, everybody's talking 'bout the Wilbury Twist."
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Location: Ohio
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  • #64
  • Posted: 01/10/2017 01:16
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Can we do this without Jeff?


Electric Light Orchestra Part Two by El...ra Part II

BEA Ranks: 190th of 1990; 2,326th of 1990's; 11,200th of All Time
Ranked highest by: TrekkiELO, #23 of All Time

Jefflessness was not a problem with ELOP2. The songs were well-crafted and musically interesting. Some of them (Honest Men, Thousand Eyes) sounded like typical Electric Light Orchestra songs. The sound, it seems, did not stick to Lynne. Some of them harkened back to the classical music of their early days (Once Upon a Time, Thousand Eyes). And one, For the Love of a Woman, hearkened back even further, back to the Wall of Sound of the early sixties.

It was as if the record couldn't decide which decade is was supposed to be in. One of the songs, Kiss Me Red, sounded like the 80's ELO of Time and Secret Messages. Even more interesting were the songs that sounded "of their time", that is, late 80's. Every Night and Easy Street were solid rockers that were clearly influenced by the big hair metal of the late 80's; Heart of Hearts was a good power ballad.

At this late date, one can only speculate about how it sounded when it was new. It certainly would have been enjoyable for ELO fans, who had not gotten any new music in four years. Contemporary audience would probably have heard most of it as a 70's throwback.

Listmeister Ranks: 7th of 1990; 85th of 1990's.
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  • #65
  • Posted: 01/27/2017 23:59
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Where's Jeff? Is he sleeping outside?


Armchair Theatre by Jeff Lynne

BEA ranks: 99th of 1990, 1153rd of 1990's, 5,679th of All TIme
Ranked highest by harmony, 11th of all time

" It's way over produced and I just felt like "so what"." --Coconut

Jeff Lynne needs a band. With Travelling Wilbury's, there was greatness. With the Move, amazing. With Electric Light Orchestra, he was awesome. By himself, eeehhh, not so much.

There were a couple of interesting tracks, "Now You're Gone" and "Every Little Thing" are pretty good. Not phenomenal, just pretty good. And I'm not sure why, of all the standards that are out there, he picked "Stormy Weather" to be the one he recorded.

This album is completely skippable. I'm not even going to rank it.
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  • #66
  • Posted: 02/12/2017 01:00
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ELO is back! Sort of!


Electric Light Orchestra Part II Perfor...ra Part II

BEA Ranks: 526th of 1992; 5823rd of 1990s; 29,200th of All Time
Ranked highest by: TrekkiELO, 19th of 1990s

On most of the songs here, they sound like an ELO cover band. The instrumentation is phenomenal as always, that part doesn't sound like a cover, but it's just not the same, and by 'the same', I mean Jeff Lynne's vocals. It's a reasonably enjoyable album, and it gets better once you get over the cover-bandiness of it. 'Can't Get It Out of My Head' is actually pretty close to the original. "Roll Over Beethoven", the climax of the show, was powerful and energizing.

It was an enjoyable retrospective, reciting the old ELO hits, and it was good to hear Mik Kaminsky's violin again.


Moment Of Truth by Electric Light Orchestra Part II

BEA Ranks: 271st of 1995; 2,627th of 1990s, 12,635th of All Time
Ranked highest by TrekkiELO 26th of All Time.

In "Part Two" the album, they were trying to sound contemporary. In "Performs ELO's Greatest" they tried to sound like the old Electric Light Orchestra. "Moment of Truth" is an album of original material, and you get the idea that the band just said, "screw it, we're just going to sound like ourselves." And it works, this album is fantastic, the best they've done since "Secret Messages".

It begins with a 2001-style classical music crescendo, and classical music flourishes are scattered throughout the album. If you like the concept of classical music mixed with pop, I think this is the album where they come closest to that ideal since "Face The Music."

As for the other songs, "Power of a Million Lights" is perfect ELO Pop, an instant favorite. Two songs really rock, "Don't Wanna" and "Whiskey Girls". Honorable mention for "The Fox", an epic fairy tale story of a fox hunt, told from the perspective of the fox.

Listmeister Ranks 1995: 4th; 1990's: 33rd:
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  • #67
  • Posted: 04/24/2017 21:23
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Good call, record company


Main Street by Roy Wood & Wizzard

BEA Ranks: 1,212th of 2000; 14,642nd of 2000's; 57,117th of All Time
Ranked highest by Leonard (30th best of 2000)


Listmeister wrote:

Eddie And The Falcons by Wizzard (UK)

Originally intended to be a double album, the other disk was going to be done in a more jazz-rock style. The Label asked them to release the disk of rock-and-roll stuff when the jazz-rock disk wasn't finished yet, and didn't look like it was going to be. Eventually, in 2000, the jazz-rock bit was released as Main Street. We'll get there.


Main Street sounds nothing like Eddie and the Falcons; it's not even obvious that the two albums were made by the same band. As a double album, this would never have worked. People would have like the rock-and-roll disk (Eddie) and disliked the jazz disk (Main Street). I suppose a few might have liked the Main Street disk and eschewed the Falcons.

I'm not qualified to say that one jazz record is better than another. Even universally acclaimed jazz albums have little effect on me.[Footnote] So probably the less I say about the pure jazz pieces (Main Street, Saxmaniac, I Should Have Known), the better. I thought they were terrible, sorry. Some of the songs were more rock-and-roll, but only Don't You Feel Better approached the quality of Eddie and the Falcons. A couple of enjoyable ballads, French Perfume and Indiana Rainbow. Take My Hand is also a ballad, a bit too slow; however, it's the most ELO sounding song on the record.

And so, we wrap up the discography of Mr. Roy Wood. I regret deciding to follow his career in this music diary, it was a distraction from the main story, that of the Electric Light Orchestra. The only album in his post-ELO discography that I'm likely to listen to again is [/i]Eddie and the Falcons[i]. If Roy had had his way and released the two albums as a double, I probably wouldn't listen again to even that one. So, good call, Warner Bros.

[Footnote] I'm not fond of jazz. I say this to my shame, but I am willing to admit my limitations.
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  • #68
  • Posted: 06/22/2017 19:48
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Two late-blooming branches


Zoom by Electric Light Orchestra

BEA Ranks 168th of 2001; 1,720th of 2000s; 6,863rd of all time
Ranked highest by: TrekkiELO (3rd of All TIme)


No Rewind by The Orchestra

BEA Ranks 307th of 2001; 3,413th of 2000s; 13,014th of All Time
Ranked highest by: TrekkiELO (28th of All Time)

Part of what I wanted to find out in doing this survey was, whether ELO's later albums, the post-Millenium few, were as good as they used to be. The answer is, it kind of depends on what you mean by ELO.

What happened was, Bev Bevan, who was still playing with ELO Part II, sort of retired. He sold his rights to the ELO name to Jeff Lynne. Meanwhile, the rest of ELO Part II wanted to keep on going. Lynne's lawyers dutifully informed them that they were not allowed to call themselves "Electric Light Orchestra" anymore. Fine, they said, keep your stupid electric lights. We'll just be The Orchestra.

So Jeff Lynne tried to recreate the ELO sound by himself. The result was a good try, and he came close on a couple of songs (In My Own Time, It Really Doesn't Matter at All), but the album lacks something. Passion, energy, I can't quite put my finger on it. It's just not that much fun to listen to.

To be fair State Of Mind has a really cool bass-line. Also that is beautiful cover art, one of their best.

The Orchestra was, by this time, Mik Kaminski, Louis Clark and Kelly Groucutt from the old ELO, plus Eric Troyer who had been with Part II since the beginning, and Parthenon Huxley, the new guy. The music of No Rewind has all the energy and fun of the old Electric Light Orchestra, especially on the first three tracks or so. Lyrically, it's more interesting than Zoom. The vocals are a bit different because it's not Jeff Lynne. Not better or worse, just different.

The icing on this music cake, the prize at the bottom of the cereal box. is their cover of "Twist And Shout" done in a minor key.


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Listmeister Ranks:
Zoom:
10th of 2001

No Rewind:
2nd of 2001
32nd of 2000s
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  • #69
  • Posted: 07/04/2017 22:01
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Better

Long Wave by Jeff Lynne

BEA: 388th of 2012; 2407th of 2010s; 14,805th of All Time
Ranked highest by TrekkiELO, 34th of All Time

And so nothing happened with ELO for about ten years. No wait, that's not quite true. There were compilation albums released, and a few live retrospective albums (releases of concerts from "back in the day"), and the Orchestra did a live album of old ELO hits (which I can't find and therefore can't review). No new material happened until Jeff Lynne released his "Long Wave" in 2012.

This isn't exactly new material either. It's Jeff Lynne singing standards, rock-and-roll and otherwise. Unlike Armchair Theatre (recorded 20 years before), which was mostly written by Lynne, this album allows him to focus on the emotional content of each song.

Particularly moving is "So Sad to Watch Good Love Go Bad", originally recorded by the Everly Brothers. The Everly version has fantastic harmonies, of course, but you can miss the weight of decaying love. Or at least, I did until I heard the Jeff Lynne version. "Running Scared" and "Beyond the Sea" were also delightful. "Let It Rock" was an excellent cover of a more obscure Chuck Berry tune.
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  • #70
  • Posted: 07/09/2017 21:27
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Last, maybe least


Alone In The Universe by Jeff Lynne's ELO

BEA Ranks: 108th of 2015; 921st of 2010s; 6,843rd of All Time

Ranked highest by TrekkiELO: 14th of All Time

"Perhaps this spaceship will save us!" -- Leonard

In my review of Zoom (q.v.), I said that it was missing something, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Here it is: The Jeff Lynne's ELO albums just aren't as interesting, musically, as the rest of the band could produce. In the old ELO you had Jeff Lynne's talent + Richard Tandy's talent + Bev Bevan's talent plus Kelly Groucutt + Mik Kaminski + Ron Wood plus everyone else who happened to be in the band during that album. Since 1986, you've had just Jeff's talent. He will produce the occasional great song (Rattled from Travelling Wilburys, So Sad to Watch Good Love Go Bad, When the Night Comes) , but he just doesn't have an album's worth of good stuff in him at any given time. The Orchestra, in its various incarnations, was not as good as ELO with Lynne; but it was better than Lynne by himself, because there are enough talented musicians to build something greater than the talent of any single individual.

"When I Was a Boy" and "Love and Rain" are slowish ballads, Armchair Theatre stuff. "Dirty to the Bone" is also balladish, but it at least has some ELO flavoring to it.

Now, I mentioned "When the Night Comes" earlier as an example of Lynne's occasional greatness. It sounds like the ELO of the 70's, complete with violins and reverb and falsettos. It captures the ELO sound, and some of that carries over into "The Sun Will Shine on You" a song which is played at way too slow a tempo. I know this is true because, thanks to some 21st century technology (You Tube setting), I listened to the song at 1.5 speed, and it's much better at that speed.

"Ain't it a Drag" would be a better description of the previous song (burn!), but it's actually really good. Worthy of that red-and-yellow disk thingy. It sounds like the ELO of the 80's, and would not be out of place on Balance of Power.

"All My Life" and "I'm Leaving You" are completely forgettable. "One Step at a Time" is an intersection between ELO sound, some great guitar work, and old 40's standard. It's an original song with a melody reminiscent of an old Bing Crosby croon. "Alone in the Universe" can be interpreted as Jeff Lynne's longing for things to be back the way they were, with his old bandmates, making records like they used to. In that light, it's a fairly sad ending. As he said on another record, "I wish I was back in 1981."

Listmeister Ranks:
9th of 2015
41st of 2010s

I don't have a lot of depth on 2010's albums.

"When I gaze around this wreck of a town where people never speak aloud, with it's ivory towers and its plastic flowers, I wish I was back in 1981. Just to see your face instead of this place, now you know what you mean to me. And I wonder, is this the way life's meant to be?"
--Jeff Lynne, The Way Life's Meant to Be, Time
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