E.L.O 2

I discovered ELO about the time of Eldorado, but really got into them with Face the Music and rapidly worked my way through the back catalogue, This remains one of their weirdest, most atypical releases, containing only five tracks: five slabs of sprawling sonic wonder that might well, if you're a fan of their later, more radio-friendly music, have you running for the hills.First off, we have the heavy, ponderous and rifftastic "In Old England Town" with Lynne's sneering vocals painting a scathing picture of society. I still remember the look of absolute horror on my older sister's face when she came into my room and heard me playing this. "What the HELL.....?" she asked. To remedy this, the next track is the sweet and plaintive "Momma" (or "Mama" as it was known to me in my US suburban bedroom) a lovely song that stays just ...and I mean just...the right side of sentimental, aided by some lovely instrumentation and a soulful vocal by Lynne. This, of course is followed up by ELO's first breakthrough hit, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven", but even here they push the envelope, and even if you think you know the song you'll be surprise how here, on the album, they deconstruct it and give it room to breathe and go nuts. The next track, "From the Sun to the World (Boogie No. 1) opened the second side of the album and sprawls through a number of genres and tempos and moods. This is, perhaps, one of my favourite ELO tracks, as it so wonderfully combines the eclectic with the hectic, blending in the strings and mournful horns but never forgetting to boogie and downright rock. The little adagio sequence is breathtakingly beautiful, but just a few minutes later there's an electric guitar going absolutely crazy over the boogie-woogie piano. It's refreshingly original and bracingly bizarre. The album closer, "Kuiama" is a scathing indictment of the craziness of war (de rigeur in these Vietnam days) built around a strange, unearthly tune and lifted to the heavens by one of the most remarkable violin solos ever, by the late, great Wilf Gibson. Honestly, I don't think I've ever heard anything so heart-wrenching, so emotive, so redolent of the human voice crying out in pain as I have in this brief but poignant solo and even after all these years I can't listen to it without a lump in my throat,It's a unique album in the annals of the band: heavy, progressive rock embracing remarkable sonic textures, the rough interplay of the classical instruments to the fore and the strange, unweildy fusion of genres and the synergistic power that this produced.The bonus tracks are fascinating (and for years I had no idea that Roy Wood was on this album) but it's the album itself that really gets to me. I'd recommend it but...well, it's no "Diary of Horace Wimp" , that's for sure.

This album should not be confused with ELO Part 2, Bev Bevan’s brief continuation of the ELO project in 1990. It’s actually the second album of Wood & Lynne’s original Electric Light Orchestra, from which Roy Wood departed mid-recording, and was released in 1973 when Jeff Lynne had taken over as band leader, composer-in-chief and musical producer.In addition to Lynne and Bevan, other musicians to survive from the early Wood-Lynne era are Richard Tandy on keyboards, Mike de Albuquerque on bass, violinist Wilfred Gibson and cellists Mike Edwards & Colin Walker.The influence of Roy Wood is still felt on some of these numbers, notably the opener ‘In Old England Town’, ‘Boogie number 2’ and ‘From the Sun to the World’. The rest however lacks the quirkiness and distinctive style of the first 1971 album, is more like a 1970s prog-rock album and (sorry to offend dyed-in-the-wool ELO fans here) not among the very best of the genre. The problem is possibly that Lyne was intuitively after a bigger and more mainstream audience, but with a lot of undeveloped ideas from the early experimental time what we ended up with was possibly too much of a hybrid, unsure of where it belongs which falls, so to speak, between two stools: not really art-rock or experimental, nor a grab for a more mainstream audience with the memorable pop compositions which within a few short years would characterise the ELO sound.Overall: after the quirky, eccentric and very original sound of the first ‘Electric Light Orchestra’ album with Roy Wood in the driving seat, ELO2 is something of a let-down. To share this view depends, of course, on what floats your boat: if you like rock music from the 1970s spiced-up with cellos & violin, then this might be for you. It’s an instructive pointer as to where the soon-to-be-an-international-supergroup ELO was headed, and interesting for all that.

As others have said, this early (1973) ELO album may not please those used to the vibrant pop-rock of Out of the Blue or New World Record, but it's a decent rock record in its own right. Having lessened the Roy Wood-heavy baroque-rock stylings of the first post-Move effort this next Jeff Lynne dominated (and produced) album features several meandering tracks which are virtually prog; partly because prog was king in the early 70s and also because Lynne couldn't figure out how to edit the tracks down- but that's left us with the fabulous 11 minute Kuiama, the riff-laden opener In Old England Town and its companion piece 'Boogie No.2'.The charming Momma is another fine track. However, I'm no fan of Roll Over Beethoven- 'though its energy accounts for its popularity in the ELO live set- and the additional tracks are either underwhelming or the same as on the re-mastered On the Third Day. All in all, a good early 70's proggy rock album which just happens to be by stadium pop-rock titans ELO - and vastly more pleasing than ELO's later disco-pop phase.

Finally picked this up to complete my CD collection of ELO's early works (I bought it on vinyl not long after it came out). Despite the absence of Roy Wood, like ELO 1, it's more proggy and less Beatley than their later albums. It has been dismissed by some as strictly for completists, but it's an interesting album and well worth a punt at the current price.

This is an album they created before they became commercialised. I'm not knocking their work which was more commercial, such as Out of the Blue, or New World Record which are brilliant also; but ELO 2 is unique; it is more string orientated than subsequent albums. Aside from the bonus tracks which I don't think add much to the CD, there are the 5 tracks from the original album. Not a huge number but they tend to be longer than average, not that length is that important, but they are definitely of quality.