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With "ELO II" Jeff Lynne began to retool the Electric
Light Orchestra sound. Co-founder Roy Wood left midway through
the sessions taking his songs and some of the newly recruited
members of ELO with him to form Wizzard. While the formative
sound of ELO can be heard on the band's second album "ELO
II" was truly a transitional album. Lynne's collaborator throughout
the rest of ELO's career keyboardist/guitarist Richard Tandy
joined at this stage. Tandy arguably helped Lynne retool the
sound of the band from here on out with his assistance in
arranging the string parts and playing. Tandy provided a perfect
although different foil for Lynne than Wood; Tandy wasn't
a songwriter and his expertise was confined to arranging and
playing on the album. ***
One of the gems in the collection here is the FM stable
"Roll over Beethoven" where Lynne cleverly fused Beethoven's
Fifth Symphony with Chuck Berry's witty classic rock song.
Lynne and the rest of the band reinvent the song with their
interpolation of Beethoven's classical piece into the main
body of the song played on sythesizer by Tandy. The rumbling
"In Old England Town" which features Wood playing strings
opens the album with a stomping piece of prog rock. "Mama"
one the other highlights of the album bear the strongest resemblence
to later ELO with its lilting vaguely Asian sounding opening
string part arranged by Lynne and Tandy. ***
The rest of the album isn't quite as memorable although
it is just as experimental as the first ELO album. "From The
Sun to The World" recalls both "What" and "Open Up Said The
World At The Door" both Lynne compositions from The Move's
"Looking On" with its rambling structure. After hearing it
(and the other long songs on the album) Lynne's father asked
him if he could write something with a "melody" and that he
would probably sell more records if it was more melodic and
straight forward. He was right and Lynne did just that with
the third albumFar more inviting than either of those tunes
the song finds ELO straddling the line between what they were
and what they were to become. The closing track "Kuiama" meanders
all over the place and goes on for far too long at 11 minutes.
The central melody of the song is certainly memorable and
a very good song but it could have used some editing. It's
clear that Lynne created many of these longer pieces because
1) it was the trend at the time 2) prog rock was doing it
and 3) he needed to fill out the album and didn't have enough
material ready when Wood left. ***
The bonus tracks fill out the album nicely with alternate
takes of ""In Old England Town" without the vocals and one
with an alternate mix. "Roll Over Beethoven" appears in a
witty alternate take with Lynne imitating by humming, laughing
and making farting sounds with his mouth of the characteristic
opening string part. Would it have been a hit single? Doubtful
but it sure is fun to hear particuarly with the band sounding
much looser and playing with raw energy that outpaces the
released finished version. The jewel is a minor Lynne tune
"Baby I Apologise" that features the singer on a demo playing
piano for an unknown singer to learn the song (Lynne can't
recall who he wrote and recorded it for now). ***
As uneven as "ELO II" is it still features some terrific
material as Lynne remakes the group's sound into something
ELO fans will recognize. This moved the band further from
the group's origin in The Move into its own unique sound.
***
A couple of notes for ELO fans; if you're looking for
the full length version of "Roll Over Beethoveen" that was
on the original US release this version isn't quite it. From
what I recall the U.S. version ran about 7:45 minutes and
this version runs nearly 30 seconds less. Still, it sounds
terrific. The lyrics (never Lynne's strongest suit although
he is quite capable at writing them when he wants to be) are
not included in the booklet although we do get notes from
Lynne about the production of the album. ***
I'd highly recommend this early effort just keep in mind
it resembles the ELO people know from "New World Record" only
superficially as Lynne kept wanting to progress and try different
things.
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