ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA [AKA: NO ANSWER]

Frankly speaking, I only knew this album couple of months ago when I saw the CD of this album at local store. When I knew ELO for the first time in 1976 was when "Telephone Line" hit the pop industry at that time and since then I occasionally purchased some album of the band. I remember vividly to play on air "Telephone" line in amateur radio program that my friends and I established in Madiun, East Java, Indonesia. But this first album had never available at that time in cassette (a format that was very common in my country during the 70s). When I first listened to this debut, I was really amazed by the music quality that this album offers. Looking back on the early years of the band, it was basically Roy Wood's (The Move) obsession to form a pop music with orchestration using cellos, violin like a real orchestra. The result was an excellent album that impressed the US label. The rest was history.

The opener "10538 Overture" (5:30) starts with a soft guitar work in ambient mood followed nicely with string section and thin vocal line. The band seemed like to make the string section as obvious as possible as the name "orchestra" implies a string section which dominates the song. The second track "Look at Me Now" (3:16) reminds me to The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" especially on the structure and style. Melody-wise it's quite different than The Beatles. The orchestration takes a dominating role and the music sounds progressive, especially with many changing styles and tempo. "Nellie Takes Her Bow" (5:58) starts beautifully with piano-based rhythm section, combined with light string section to accompany vocal. The song flows in mellow style until the mid section which represents dynamic break with different style which makes the song richer in textures. The violin solo backed with percussion is truly great.

"The Battle of Marston Moor (July 2nd, 1644)" (6:02) starts with inventive style where all instruments work together in experimental mode. The section that follows is truly a progressive music style where string section takes solo backed by percussion. It then flows wonderfully with acoustic guitar and combined violin and cello in "First Movement (Jumpin' Biz)" (2:58). "Mr.Radio" (5:02) is an ambient song with long-distance vocal singing style. "Manhattan Rumble (49th Street Massacre)" (4:21) is truly a prog music outfit as the song moves nicely using innovative string arrangement. "Queen of the Hours" (3:21) is another excellent composition with vocal line. "Whisper in the Night" (4:48) is another excellent song that moves in ambient mode.

Overall, this is truly a prog album which is an excellent addition to any prog music collection. Highly recommended. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW