John Murray 2007-05-28
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E.L.O. was at this point in their career, a band in transition. Having been born as an intelligent pop band called The Move, E.L.O. had veered sharply into progressive rock in the early 1970's and had some moderate success with their marriage of classical music stylings (complete with a permanent string section) and epic style rock production. After their return to commercial success with 1974's "Eldorado", they found even greater success with 1975's "Face The Music", which produced two of their signature songs, "Evil Woman" and "Strange Magic". In the face of such success, E.L.O. was on the brink of either selling out or reaching its' greatest heights. And...they chose the greatest heights.
The opening track, "Tightrope", was a journey through their career to date ("They say some days you're gonna win/They say some days you're gonna lose")and featured a perfect marriage of synthesizer blues rock married with their most energetic string section yet. It's a killer track, perhaps the moment when everything really came together for the band...the pristine moment when their progressive leanings were still vibrant, yet was now manifesting itself as something accessible to the masses.
"Telephone Line", the biggest hit from the album, is a soaring power ballad that uses some neat sonic tricks (for the 1970's) but puts on a lyrical twist that was ahead of its time (Telephone Line/Give me some time/I'm living in twilight). "Rockaria!" is a manic romp about a city going wild for rock and roll, which is on one side epic silliness, and on the other, an ear to ear grin for everything fun about rock and roll. The album is filled with progressive pop music, a forerunner of many new wave stylings that would become all the rage within 5 years, on songs like "So Fine", "Livin' Thing" and "Shangri-La"..and they even dust off an old Move song, "Do Ya", a psychedelic rocker that fits perfectly in the transitional style of this album.
Considering how easy it is to identify an E.L.O. song, it seems almost laughable to suggest that one of their albums would see them dabbling in many different styles. But that's just what they do on "A New World Record", showing the rock and blues roots, the progressive influence, and finally veering into the cutting edge of modern pop. All in all...a masterpiece of the seventies.
