Soon, very soon, in fact, Electric Light Orchestra will board a very literal last train. More likely a tour bus, for those who want to keep the dream of the open road alive. Their final concert at Hyde Park is just a few months away and for many, that means a chance to revisit their back catalogue has revealed itself. Last Train to London remains one of their grooviest, one of their best. One of the good ones which we cling to when reminded of the middling pieces of flavourless bile which released in recent years. But Jeff Lynne stands tall on Discovery as a chart-topper, as a titan of writing catchy riffs of funk-like promise where the every day, the microscopic portions of living in the capital city, are not the crunch of horror they are now. No, there is hope found in Last Train to London.
No more is there hope in that city, but Last Train to London serves as an opportunity to hear the buzz and charm of a beating, capital heart. There is the argument to be made against Discovery, against its disco-riddled anthemic beat and the stray away from the orchestral part of the Lynne-led creation, but this is not the place to foam at the mouth. Last Train to London stands as one of their very best, in isolation, because it has all the right hooks and catchy flavours which would cement the band as far more fun than the disco they pulled their instrumentals from. Crucially, Last Train to London and the Discovery project as a whole, is fun. Why anyone would actively choose to go to London, aside from to see a gig of some kind, is beyond understanding. Yet people do. People live there. Last Train to London gets to grips with it. There is still a time when the capital was seen as a spectacle.
Here it is profiled as a wonderfully vibrant place where bass grooves are around every street corner. Love is the key to this Lynne-written piece. No harm in that. London is a city surely filled with love, and at least one street for that aim is possible. Even with this catchy perfection driving the rather primitive lyrics of wanting to be with someone lost in the city likened to a sea of people and buildings, there is a sense of losing the point. A repetitive last minute where the bass groove is all that matters, the string section fading out long before the instrumental excess does, is all part of the problem. Pair it with Face the Music rip, Down Home Town, and the feeling is no longer one of mutual love between city and topic.
Those grooves of whimsical city visitation turn sour when a hometown is longed for. Down Home Town takes a strict country style, of all things, and uses it as a weapon against those who may think less of a city because of some logistical error or regional dialect. Lynne works well here and there is an argument to be made for how he loses his sense of personable effect, his origins, on the Van Morrison-sounding Down Home Town. It is lost completely on Last Train to London, that perfect, loved-up noise made in tribute to the capital pairs well with the anger heard on Down Home Town. Your hometown is as bad as the capital, though. Listen in and weep to two of the very best bits from the ELO backlog.
