FACE THE MUSIC

In the short silence between track one and track two of this album something bad happened: ELO transformed from an Art Rock band into a commercial Pop band. Sure, the signs had been there for a long time and already on their second album (imaginatively called ELO II) there were a couple of more commercial tracks and the same can be said of On The Third Day and certainly of Eldorado. But on Face The Music the relation was the other way around, i.e. one or two non-Pop moments among an ocean of aspiring radio hits. As implied, the opening track is the best one. It is an instrumental with some surprising twists and turns that belongs to my all time favourite ELO tracks. The track is also noteworthy for including a backward-message! However, this album really constituted the end of ELO's Art Rock-era and the beginning of their Pop-era. The sound is exactly the same as on Eldorado, but while that album was held together by a concept, Face The Music is based on individual tunes some of which are rather tedious and some of which are quite good.

If you are about to investigate ELO, don't begin here! Start instead with the band's earlier albums, particularly On The Third Day, Eldorado and the self-titled debut (aka No Answer)

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