Calling All ELO Fans

Cafe Society
1

The last two ELO albums, Balance Of Power (1986) and Zoom (2001), are they any good? Are they worth buying?

I have all the other albums (except Xanadu and the ELO, Pt. II stuff, which if I understand it correctly, is just Bev Bevan and some session guys).

Wiki says Balance Of Power is all synths, no strings, which is fine by me. I dig all the different ELO incarnations: Strings, No Strings, Synths. No info on Zoom, so I have no idea what to expect.

Lastly, can I get the ELO Xanadu songs without buying the soundtrack? I have no interest in the ONJ songs.

Thanks

2

This is the sort of thing that AMG was designed for.

3

Balance of Power was Jeff Lynne’s “contractual obligation” album. It’s got a few good songs: “So Serious”, “Calling America” (which does have synths), “Getting to the Point”, & “Send It”. It’s fair overall, but certainly not the best the band (a trio here: Jeff, Bevan, & Richard Tandy) has done.

Zoom was a disappointment. It’s all Jeff Lynne and it lacks the ELO “feel”. The live DVD is good because the group (Jeff & Richard with some other guys) does some great versions of classic ELO songs (“Living Thing” & “Turn to Stone” kick ass).

You can’t get any of the Xanadu tracks anywhere other than the soundtrack (except the title track, which is available on most of Olivia’s hits packages).

On the box set, Flashback, Jeff does his own version of “Xanadu”. The set also contains a few more unreleased tracks and every song was hand-picked by Jeff (who also comments on the tracks in the booklet).

He did not like the first box set, Afterglow, but it does contain a handful of unreleased tracks as well.

4

Looks like you can buy individual tracks from the Xanadu soundtrack on iTunes, so one can just get the ELO tracks.

5

[Johnny Carson] I did not know that! [/JC]

6

Have to agree with Mr Blue Sky. Balance of Power is an okay album, though well below ELO’s best. Zoom isn’t ELO at all; it’s a solo Jeff Lynne album with the ELO name slapped on it.

(And, as a solo Jeff Lynne album, it’s not a particularly good one; it’s not a patch on Armchair Theatre.)

7

Hey, thanks guys. I think I’ll pass on Zoom. I’ll probably pick up Balance Of Power.

Dare I ask it, but is the ELO, Pt. II stuff any good at all?

8

THERE IS NO ELO PART II, NEVER WAS!!!
(but if there were, imagine Journey songs WITHOUT the depth)

9

That iTunes, weird wild shtuff!

10

I think “Hello My Old Friend” is the best gift to the world that Jeff Lynne could have made. No one has come so close to recreating “I Am The Walrus” without actually playing any of that song. Not even The Rutles. I don’t know why it went unreleased for so long.

Do you have any idea what he didn’t like about that collection?

11

He was not consulted as to which songs were to be used. I think he felt the unreleased songs should have stayed that way.

Unfortunately missing from both collections was “Caught in a Trap” (the B-side to “Calling America”).