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Electric Light Orchestra Part Two
Moment Of Truth
Perhaps I'm always looking at ELO Part II from the wrong angle. I keep hoping
that they might someday approach the artistry of the original ELO, and that must
be too high an expectation. I used to refer to the "original" ELO as
the "real," ELO, but the band's lineup on this album starts to erode
my old argument/complaint that this isn't the "real" ELO. Bassist
Kelly Groucutt, whose backup harmony vocals complemented Jeff Lynne's leads and overdubs so well from 1975 to
1981, has joined ELO Part II, and arranger/keyboardist Louis Clark and
violinist Mik Kaminski, who played with the original ELO from 1973 right
through the last album, have joined full-time. Of course ELO/Move drummer
Bev Bevan is still there (when ELO Part II debuted in 1990 he was the only
representative of the original band). Of the original Part II lineup, only
Bevan and Eric Troyer (who once sang backup for John Lennon) have been
retained, and if only for Troyer, this is good. The Troyer-penned songs on
Part II's first album were the closest the band came to the distinctive
Jeff-Lynne-dictated ELO sound of old, and even Troyer's best was none too
close to that style. Signing on is gravelly voiced guitarist Phil Bates,
whom I confess to never having heard of before. The album kicks off with a
ponderous and predictable orchestral overture, a lot of which sounds
synthesized. Fire on High, it ain't. Then Breakin' Down the
Walls opens
up and it's apparent that the band has improved - if for no other reason than
the addition of Groucutt and Kaminski - but its orchestra has been
insufferably diminished. It's sure not ELO. This song in particular is
virtually indistinguishable from Tears for Fears' Sowing the Seeds of
Love...just not as good. A nifty Troyer tune called Power of a Million
Lights follows, but the song suffers from some unimaginative arrangement.
It's
clear that the entire pool of talent in ELO Part II lacks Jeff Lynne's genius
for classically Beatlesque twists in song structure. One More Tomorrow
is a bland ballad; Troyer's almost funky Don't Wanna is a palatable
no-strings rocker, and Voices sounds like a second-rate copy of Alan
Parsons' recent You're the Voice, found on
Parsons' live CD which was released at around the same time. Following this is
a rather pointless 4-second track called Vixen, which consists of someone
saying "Hello, hello, you little vixen!" A Groucutt-penned tune
called The Fox wades somewhat tiringly through a
tale of a fox hunt from the fox's point of view.
Love Or Money, written by Troyer and Bates, improves on the
unpredictability of song arrangements that the group should be concentrating on,
but not by much. A one-minute piece called Blue Violin is laughable for
not featuring Kaminski on violin, but instead an obvious synthesized
violin. Then follows Whiskey Girls, a standard issue southern-fried
rocker I could've done without. Twist of the Knife is a nondescript
collaboration between Groucutt, Bevan and Bates, and So Glad You Said
Goodbye is a Troyer/Bevan/Bates number that doesn't arrive at a
distinguishable style until about three minutes into the song. Clark's
Underture continues the theme of the album's opening track, followed by a
soundbyte of the band in the studio.
Breakin' Down the Walls, Power of a Million Lights and
Don't Wanna
are the best songs on the album, yet none of them are as close to the sound
most listeners associate with ELO as the first album's Honest Men and
Thousand Eyes. I know, I know, it's not the same band, and maybe they're
not trying to be the same band. If this continues to be the case, they need
to change their name soon so there will be fewer disappointed listeners; if
these blokes intend to continue passing themselves off as ELO they might do
well to study what made the original incarnation of the band so outstanding
and learn from it. I don't think Jeff Lynne would've written a song like
Whiskey Girls, or would written a song such as Breakin' Down the
Walls which constantly addresses its lyrics to an unspecified
"girl." And while
someone will no doubt remind me that Jeff Lynne has nothing to do with ELO
Part II, someone should also advise the band of this so they can hurry up and
change that name. ELO Part II may have all but a couple of key members of
the original ELO - no, make that the real ELO after all - but without the
caliber of songwriting, arranging and performing that Lynne brought to the
group, they don't even have half of what made ELO what it was. One thing
that the real ELO was happened to be my favorite band of all time,
hands-down; Part II...isn't.
- Moment of Truth - Overture (4:07)
- Breakin' Down The Walls (4:27)
- Power of a Million Lights (4:54)
- Interlude 3 (0:32)
- One More Tomorrow (5:00)
- Don't Wanna (3:41)
- Voices (4:27)
- Interlude 2 (0:20)
- Vixen (0:04)
- The Fox (4:35)
- Love Or Money (4:08)
- Blue Violin (1:10)
- Whiskey Girls (3:37)
- Interlude 1 (0:58)
- Twist of the Knife (4:30)
- So Glad You Said Goodbye (4:12)
- Underture (2:52)
- The Leaving (0:25)
Released by: Edel
Release date: 1995
Total running time: 54:15
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