Electric Light Orchestra – No Answer + ELO II (Sony Music/CD Reissues)
Sound:
B Music: B
Jeff
Lynne once boldly described his band ELO as picking up where The Beatles left
off. Well, that is a great gimmick
quote, but The Beatles did so much to advance music that it would be impossible
to do what he claimed. If we go for a
search to discover what he meant, we could center on the use of strings and
faux Classical orchestrations.
Originally issued on United Artists Records, No Answer and ELO II have
been reissued by Sony Music in pleasantly upgraded editions.
No Answer (1972) opens with 10538 Overture, with stabbing violins
reminiscent of Eleanor Rigby, with those
were strings on The Beatles’ classic supposedly from the great composer Bernard
Herrmann, so is it The Beatles or Herrmann they start off imitating? Needless to say as good as the album is, it
cannot move too far away from an obsession with those strings, made most famous
by Herrmann in his score for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), making it all the more interesting and possibly
confused. Either way, it becomes an
ambitious debut effort in the Progressive Rock mode not unlike Tales Of Mystery
& Imagination from The Alan Parsons Project, reviewed elsewhere on this
site.
This
extends to the vocals, which are Beatles-obsessed, while they experiment
through the album’s nine tracks with The Beach Boys and Yes among the other
influences. Look At Me Now violins stab even more than
10538 Overture, but the mixing and
editing tries to be somewhat surreal and tricky. Luckily, this is without much gimmicky and
strings get outright acoustic at times. Mr. Radio is the most obvious Beatles
track, while this new CD has four bonus tracks that are alternates of four of
the original album cuts.
ELO II (1973) witnessed the layers of
sound the band would need to develop to survive and includes the fan favorite
cover of Chuck Berry’s classic Roll Over
Beethoven by beginning with real music by Beethoven. There are only five tracks for the original
album, suggesting the band did the one things Rock acts who loved The Beatles
did to try to continue where they left off: cutting very long songs in
deference to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts
Club Band and its seamless melding of its songs on two album sides.
Roy Wood
continued to be a major creative force in the band but soon left with three
other members to become Wizzard. Lynne
and four other members remained and rebuilt to band into what would became a
huge commercial success. With the extra
space, three of the four bonus tracks are alternate versions of original album
tracks, but Baby I Apologise is
included as a “session outtake” showing the more commercial direction they were
heading for while retaining critical accolades.
The band was on its way.
The PCM 2.0
16-Bit/44.1kHz Stereo sounds good for its age from the masters that reveal more
detail than ever before, but it is a shame this was not available in the SACD
format. These CDs were originally to be
issued in early-to-mid 2006, finally arriving by the end of the year.
UPDATE: The
rest of the catalog followed since we originally posted this review. For a DVD of live concerts from The Early Years, try this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10260/Electric+Light+Orchestra+Live+%E2
- Nicholas Sheffo
