The Electric Light Orchestra we know today is nothing like the one heard on their self-titled debut. Much of that is because of Roy Wood, the future Wizzard frontman who would leave ELO in Jeff Lynne’s hands a year after releasing this, The Electric Light Orchestra. It may have been his project but it was Lynne who moulded it into the staggering and long-lasting band it is now. Little flickers of this can be heard on their debut but The Beatles’ impact is not so much an influence as it is an imitation. Their light does not yet have power, evidenced not just by the bulb on the front but the lacklustre sound within this debut. Despite this, opener 10538 Overture is remembered more than any other song here.
But that is more because it is closer to the fundamental sound Electric Light Orchestra would soon pursue than anything else. It is not a particularly remarkable song but a welcome introduction to the Wood-led orchestra. Great fun but nothing truly brilliant. There is a lot of leeway to present artists on a debut album, less so on contemporary releases given the ease of access to live recordings, pre-release interviews and the never-ending cycle of track explainers. Leaving listeners in the dark for their debut, Electric Light Orchestra pieces together an instrumental flavour which would define them on releases after this but drift away from it and towards progressive rock pieces. They are chasers of a genre, not establishers, at this point. How could they be anything more than that? The Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band affection can be heard the whole way through, those sharp strings an inevitability.
Look at Me Now is one of those drifts away. A floating, Lewis Carroll-like adventure with kings, castles and the salvation of exploration makes for a very baroque feature. Unfocused at times but such is the point of a debut effort, to feel out a sound you can continue with further releases. Their symphonic hold on Nellie Takes Her Bow is fun but scrounges in those emotional pockets a little too deeply. Lynne would develop the orchestral efforts on later albums, particularly with the stylish and rampant excess of Face the Music – and this self-titled effort tries for the same sort of experience. An admirable effort with more than a few shortcomings. It feels tiresomely experimental – the frills and excess of its instrumental moments are paired with a Monty Python-like aesthetic. Such are the risks of a Wood-led piece. He would soon leave the band after years of working with Lynne, previously on The Move.
Electric Light Orchestra does nothing wrong with its initial tracks and there are a few standout moments like First Movement (Jumping Biz), the string joys there enough to float it. But there is nothing immediate, nothing which sets the band apart at the time from what was already available. Bits like Manhattan Rumble (49th Street Massacre) and Whisper in the Night are groovy bits of amiable work. What ELO does here and what they would go on to do just four years later has a massive gap. But filling those blanks means a step back in time, a pushback into the earliest efforts. Lynne takes the lead on those moments of interest – the Mr Radio vocal work and slams of percussion something which would become one of the best parts of the band. Scatterings of what made them so brilliant can be found in interludes.
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Every band has to start somewhere, the fact is that the three core members, Wood, Lynne and Bevan were recording this debut ELO album at the same time as they were recording their final album as The Move, much of the “Message from the Country” and “Electric Light Orchestra” albums were recorded onto the same tapes.
OK, so the production isn’t as polished as on later albums, but Wood and Lynne were still on a production learning curve. The 1969 self titled album by the Idle Race was Lynne’s first attempt at being an album producer. That was only two years before the ELO album, songs like “Mr Radio”, “Nellie Takes Her Bow” and “Queen of the Hours” would have fitted seamlessly into the “Idle Race” album.
On the whole, I like the Electric Light Orchestra” album and I still play it today.
Roy Wood leaves his stamp on the band. Not always in a good way. The parping woodwind grates at times. Lynne’s efforts shine through above Wood’s ‘experiments’. The Battle of Marston Moor is the real ‘sorts the real fans from the boys’ track that even had Bev Bevan refusing to drum on it, such was it’s dire pretension.
What I find so interesting (and unique to this album among their body of work) is how the strings are so up front, especially the cellos grinding away in in songs like Look at Me Now and Queen of the Hours. It’s as if the classical instruments are the feature and guitars plus other traditional rock instrument provide accompaniment. Strings were always prominent on the early albums but not quite in the way they are used here. This release feels the least a traditional rock album to me and easily the least pop, even though melodically it’s as good as any they did, imho. It’s certainly not formulaic. It strikes me as their least restrained and unique offering, yet still very catchy and accessible. I felt ELO 2, apart from a few standouts, was a step back from this one, and then they began to really shine. On the Third Day for me returned to the strengths of this release and built upon them.
If ever there was an album that needed Steven Wilson’s magic dust, it’s El Dorado !!
Great album, but such a dull sounding mix!
10538 overture was a real gem, and a certain Mr. Paul Weller adds weight to it by copying it, virtually exactly, years later with the song Changing man.
Most of the best tracks on here are Lynn’s, Queen of the hours, look at me now, Nellie takes her bow, etc. The album suffered, like so many do, from the fact that, it was experimental. New territory.
Roy wood, it should be recognised, is a great songwriter, singer and instrumentalist, but he was competing with Lynn for the groups soul. ELO 2 adequately displays that by being a more focused album. If you like, son of
ELO. Having said that, recording aside, the two albums are in a similar vein.
On the Third day is the album that gave birth to the ELO sound we know and love so well.