Electric Light Orchestra has Deep Purple and Christian fundamentalists to thank for Face the Music’s ongoing relevancy 

Line-up changes for legendary band Electric Light Orchestra were, for a time, par for the course. The cellists and bassists would be swapped in and out as the band continually searched for a steady line-up. It was not poor working conditions or budget cuts which prompted these, but a desire from frontman Jeff Lynne to find the best in business. Face the Music hears that the line-up finally clicks together, and the tour before it with Deep Purple is to thank. But so too are, of all groups, the Christian fundamentalists who believed Lynne was part of the Satanic panic. The Brummie-born Lynne and the rest of ELO, at this point featuring Richard Tandy and Bev Bevan, could not have been further from Devilish intent. Their fifth album together would conjure something else, though, a quality which would last from now until their 1983 release, Secret Messages. Face the Music was a make-or-break album.  

For all the proof of quality provided by On the Third Day and Eldorado, there was still a feeling around the image of ELO as a novelty. A band which could not play it straight if their on-stage presence depended on it. It was Beethoven mixed with Chuck Berry, interlaced with progressive-rock sounds, which, while played well by the band, never felt like a perfect match. It was not until a tour with Deep Purple that the band were put on course to make an album which would bring about a sound which still stands as the defining grooves of ELO. Fan favourites like Evil Woman and Fire on High have the Smoke on the Water hitmakers to thank. Their recommendation of music studio Musicland led to Lynne developing not just ELO’s sound, but a friendship with in-house engineer, Reinhold Mack, which would last longer than the band’s first run.  

Mack, the engineer and producer who worked at Magicland around the time ELO were recording Face the Music, can be heard across the album. His influence would also touch Sparks, Queen, and AC/DC. His style matched brilliantly with what ELO had wanted to do. Their previous album, Eldorado, was a solid album with a clear theme. The Wizard of Oz proved a suitable backdrop to songs like Can’t Get It Out of My Head and Eldorado. What the band needed, though, was a darker edge. They got that with the capital punishment cover of Face the Music. It doubled as an invitation and a warning, which listeners who had not come across ELO before would no doubt be chilled by. The electric chair on the front is a gruesome image, but Lynne could not write black-hearted material if he tried.  

Even the characters on Evil Woman or the chilling Face the Music opener cannot keep the fundamental ELO sound at bay. Rock operatic instrumentals open Face the Music, and even if the album is filled with characters who could have found themselves in the chair, the writing is light enough to love and strong enough to remember. It’s a fine balance which carries ELO to a place of musical strength they had only noted, not achieved, up to this point. That opening track would prove to be of great interest. Not to listeners, who were content with the Evil Woman, Strange Magic, and Nightrider triple bill of singles, but the alleged Devil worship heard on the opening song. Controversy sells, and there may have been a slight shift in sales thanks to Lynne knocking back against fundamentalists. 

They had thought Eldorado from the previous album featured Satanic messages, and so Lynne decided to play ball. “The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back,” was misconstrued as Satanic, too. But the “Hallelujah” chanting choir, the broken chords and sudden rock shift are not just a tongue-in-cheek knock, but an incredible song. It’s one of those many great moments which show Lynne is not just a quality writer of upbeat songs but a man whose grasp of the real world, the little avenues of interest and controversy, is just as strong. Those moments would rarely be the crux of the albums to follow, but the jab at Christian fundamentalists gives Fire on High that brutal opening, which sets the scene for Face the Music so well. 

What follows is a staggering showcase of how well Lynne and Mack would work together. ELO enjoyed working on Face the Music so much that they would return to Musicland time after time. The studio is as crucial as Lynne and the line-up are to the sound. They never quite had a sound which felt unique to them, but when Mack began working with them, you can hear the formation of instrumental elements which would become ELO staples. Evil Woman has some forgotten string work at the start of it, giving way, like Fire on High, to pure rock and roll bliss. No story has been told more than a love lost, but Lynne brings in some exceptionally simple, straight-to-the-point wordplay. Pair that with Tandy on keyboards with a display as strong as Mr. Blue Sky from three years later, and you have the first of many perfect ELO tracks.  

Musicland must receive its share of credit there. Mack would feature on the group’s works from Face the Music to Time, and across those albums is a studio confidence like no other. It’s no coincidence that ELO put together a remarkable, long-lasting image and their very best songs under his stewardship. He and Lynne clicked, to put it lightly. Face the Music heard the band lean into contemporary disco themes that had already taken Europe by storm and were beginning to in the UK. Crucial to note too is the speed at which Face the Music was written. Lynne claims Evil Woman took him just six minutes to write the chords and melody to, while album closer One Summer Dream, a simple-sounding song, hides within it a “protest” feeling, according to ELO’s frontman.  

Deep Purple’s studio recommendation unlocked a crucial, missing piece for ELO. They lacked the need to chase popular genres. Their interest was in what they could make and how it would sound, irrespective of what was topping the charts. That much is noble, but it does not sell your album. Lynne and the band keep their sincerity and uniqueness alive under Mack’s production, but at the same time push all the right buttons for all the wrong people. Christian fundamentalists and their reactionary feeling towards ELO at the time is bolstered, as it was for Led Zeppelin. Lynne is a songwriter who wears his influences with pride, hence The Beatles references on Down Home Town. Influences are fine enough but they need direction, moulding. Mack is the man behind all that, and it means Face the Music holds a relevancy few are noting. From references to the Fab Four to getting backing musicians to sing the sound of strings being plucked, there are hidden spots of ingenuity on Face the Music no longer in use, but were repeated by ELO across a near-perfect stretch of albums.