Electric Light Orchestra Face The Music CD

Also available in a 3-pack with A NEW WORLD RECORD and DISCOVERY.
Electric Light Orchestra: Jeff Lynne (vocals, guitar); Kelly Groucutt (vocals, bass); Richard Tandy (guitar, piano, Clavinet, Moog synthesizer); Mik Kaminsky (violin); Hugh McDowall, Melvyn Gale (cello); Bev Bevan (drums, percussion).
Master Sound releases are 24-karat gold CDs remastered from first-generation masters. This process utilizes 20-bit technology and Sony's revolutionary "Super Bit Mapping" system.
Electric Light Orchestra: Jeff Lynne (vocals, guitar); Kelly Groucutt (vocals, bass guitar); Richard Tandy (guitar, piano, Clavinet, Moog synthesizer); Mik Kaminski (violin); Hugh McDowell, Melvyn Gale (cello); Bev Bevan (drums, percussion, background vocals).
Electric Light Orchestra's more modest follow-up to Eldorado is a very solid album, if not as bold or unified. It was also their first recorded at Musicland in Munich, which became Jeff Lynne's preferred venue for cutting records. At the time, he was also generating songs at a breakneck pace and had perfected the majestic, quasi-Beatles-type style (sort of high-wattage Magical Mystery Tour) introduced two albums earlier. The sound is stripped down a bit on Face the Music, Louis Clark's orchestral contributions generally more subdued than on Eldorado, even when they compete with the band, as on "Strange Magic." The soulful "Evil Woman" was one of the most respectable chart hits of its era, and one of the best songs that Lynne ever wrote (reportedly in 30 minutes), while "Strange Magic" showed off his writing in a more ethereal vein. "One Summer Dream," which is written in a similar mode, also has a touchingly wistful mood about it but is a somewhat lackluster finale compared to the albums that preceded and followed this one. The requisite rock & roll number, "Poker," is a quicker tempo than anything previously heard from the band, the guitar is pumped up louder than ever. And "Down Home Town," an experiment in achieving a country & western sound, is fresh at this point and more interesting than the equivalent material of Out of the Blue. ~ Bruce Eder
ELO was big enough by 1974 that some people actually suggested that ELDORADO featured Satanic backward-masking. Of course, the idea was ludicrous; but the band playfully responded by adding a backward message to "Fire on High," the opening instrumental on 1975's FACE THE MUSIC.
Besides "Fire on High," which was used as background music for countless television programs in the '70s, this album's eight lengthy tracks include two enormous hits, "Evil Woman" and the McCartneyesque ballad "Strange Magic." Decades later, these two tracks are still in constant rotation on classic-rock radio around the world. Those three songs defined the new sound of ELO. Gone were the elaborate, classically styled overtures, in favor of concise, ultra-melodic pop songs given lush, romantic orchestral arrangements with endlessly overdubbed harmony vocals. The next three ELO albums refine this aesthetic to commercial perfection, but this is where it starts. FACE THE MUSIC is the album that put ELO over the top.
ELO was big enough by 1974 that some people actually suggested that ELDORADO featured Satanic backward-masking. Of course, the idea was ludicrous; but the band playfully responded by adding a backward message to "Fire on High," the opening instrumental on 1975's FACE THE MUSIC.
Besides "Fire on High," which was used as background music for countless television programs in the '70s, this album's eight lengthy tracks include two enormous hits, "Evil Woman" and the McCartneyesque ballad "Strange Magic." Decades later, these two tracks are still in constant rotation on classic-rock radio around the world. Those three songs defined the new sound of ELO. Gone were the elaborate, classically styled overtures, in favor of concise, ultra-melodic pop songs given lush, romantic orchestral arrangements with endlessly overdubbed harmony vocals. The next three ELQ (2/96, p.114) - 2 Stars - Average - "...ponderous commercial prog-rock..."