Electric Light Orchestra - Face the Music

still amazing

This album was, and still is, amazing. This album has so much energy and creativity with Nightrider, Poker, and Fire On High. Also, I agree... Jeff Lynne is a creative genius. July 16, 2008

Excellent Album

I own virtually all of ELO's albums, as well as the greatest hits of the group they evolved from, The Move. This album, to me, is their most evenly produced. I feel that a couple of the songs from "A New World Record" (Their next album) would be as strong as any ELO has produced, but that album would not be as consistent as this one.

"Face The Music" opens with my personal favorite of all ELO tracks, the outstanding instrumental "Fire On High". It still sounds technologically fresh today, and the music is progressive and accessible all at once; I'm sure Alan Parsons wishes he had come up with this track!

Much like it's opening track, the album is filled with twists and turns; "Down Home Town" dabbles with a hoedown feel, while "Poker" lets the band dig into its' rockabilly roots. The two excellent singles, "Evil Woman" and "Strange Magic", are wrongfully blamed for the bland, poppy style that would follow. These two tracks are, in fact, true pop nuggets that showcased Jeff Lynne's strong ability to write music, while taking it in an arguably progressive direction.

It could be argued that this album was the first rumbling of a style that would subsequently be characterized "New Wave". The music relies much more on synthesizers and strings as opposed to guitars, although the odd power chord remains. As they honed and developed their new sound through the next few albums, ELO would increasingly be dismissed as a lightweight pop band that was better suited to AC radio than AOR. True though this might have been in their later career, at this stage in time ELO was a pioneering band, writing a solid blend of commercially accessible music with progressive stylings. Music fans of today should be searching out this excellent album and evaluating for themselves the impact ELO would have on the progression of popular music in the 1970's and 1980's.

My own view is that some of the stronger artists to emerge from the New Wave era, such as the Eurythmics, owe a great debt to this album. June 23, 2008

ELO

Wanted Fire on High so I opted for Face The Music....excellent album in 1975 and still is, though I wish the "bonus" tracks had been something of more interest. Perhaps actual songs not used on the album, surely ELO had plenty.... June 11, 2008

Facing Up to Greatness

There are days when "Face The Music" is my favorite ELO CD, switching with A New World Record and Out of the Blue. But for sheer over-the-top surprise, this fourth effort from Electric Light Orchestra could not be beat. From the moment the psychedelic introduction sucks you into "Fire On High" till the final fade of (the original) beautiful LP closing "One Summer Dream," Jeff Lynne took his concepts of orchestral pop and completed them in a way the other albums had hinted at.

This was also the home of ELO's career establishing singles, "Evil Woman" and "Strange Magic." It made "Face The Music" ELO's first US top ten album and firmly established them as a top concert draw, not too mention two of the best songs to get on the radio in 1975. The band was still forging its sound (future albums would venture more and more to the pop side), but the condensed prog-rock like "Fire On High" took the excess of ELP to tight digestible nuggets. "Night Rider" is also one of the overlooked songs in the ELO library, with Jeff Lynne writing a brief autobiography of his early days in a traveling band. Lynne's fascination with country gets an early workout here, on "Down Home Town."

The bonus tracks add to the story, with the bare-bones mix of "Fire On High" offering a fascinating look into the thought process of making a song. A stripped down "Evil Woman" (with additional lyrics) Lynne claims in the liner notes that he likes better than the ultimate album version. Even with these more minimalist version present, "Face The Music" stands as the moment when Jeff Lynne and the members of ELO perfected their sound and production, to the point that the this and their next two albums still rival any music being created to this date. February 17, 2008

Great Start

This was the first Album (in vinyl) that I ever bought. "Fire on High" was the song I had to own. An excellent instrumental that you had to listen to over and over again, until the track was worn out. I highly recommend this to any one who loves guitar music and classic rock. Though, Bev Bevan really does a great job on the drums. Jeff Lynne was really showing his talent on this album. The CD now gives me a clean track of "Fire on High" and all the other tracks like "Down Home Town" and "Evil Women". January 20, 2008

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