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Post by PowWow on Nov 14, 2014 19:47:46 GMT
I like Balance of Power, don't get me wrong.
But there's an atmosphere of "I really don't want to continue with this" that is pervasive through-out the album, as if Jeff was going through hard times and didn't want ELO to continue in the rest of the 80's.
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Post by skyclad1904 on Nov 14, 2014 22:02:02 GMT
I love Balance of Power (for me it's not "Balance of payment"...). It has a very unique sound, really good outtakes and Jeff is at his peak with his vocals. I even don't miss the strings here.
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Post by PowWow on Nov 14, 2014 22:35:12 GMT
I love Balance of Power (for me it's not "Balance of payment"...). It has a very unique sound, really good outtakes and Jeff is at his peak with his vocals. I even don't miss the strings here. Pros - BOP Sold well (at least in the UK), An original synth-pop album chock full of memorable ditties that doesn't drag on. Cons - Because Secret Messages wasn't a double album (thus wrapping up their contract with Jet/CBS in one go) Jeff fixed this album in a quick period of time in order to get the hell out of the confining said Jet/ CBS contract. I thinks that's a reasonable analysis don't you think? :3
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Post by wilko on Nov 14, 2014 23:27:02 GMT
I like it in a "nostalgic end of era" kind of way.
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Post by skyclad1904 on Nov 14, 2014 23:56:29 GMT
Cons - Because Secret Messages wasn't a double album (thus wrapping up their contract with Jet/CBS in one go) Jeff fixed this album in a quick period of time in order to get the hell out of the confining said Jet/ CBS contract. I thinks that's a reasonable analysis don't you think? :3 No, I think Balance of Power was announced some months before it was finally released. It might have been the ELO album Jeff worked the longest time on, there are speculations about many reworked songs and alternative versions which still remain unreleased.
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Post by Helmut83 on Nov 15, 2014 0:32:31 GMT
I tend to think that knowing certain circumstances related to the context in which a determined album was recorded conditions our opinions, consciously or unconsciously, in a way that makes us believe we are able to get those circumstances through the music of that album. In other words, we know how BOP was recorded: Jeff didn't want to go ahead with ELO any longer, he had a contract to fullfill, things had go wrong with some of the old members of the band, etc... Knowing all this beforehand, we listen to the album and everything on it sounds to us as typical from a band which was disbanding. But would we "hear" the same things or would we perceive it in the same way if we knew nothing about the context surrounding the album? I don't think so. IMO, the only song of BOP that really screams what you PowWow say is "Getting to the point". That's a nostalgic ballad that talks clearly about something that's coming to an end. Out of that one, I don't think much in the rest of the album would give us that sensation if we didn't know by other means what was going on with Jeff, ELO and the other guys. Yeah, you could say something about a few lyrics here and there (for example, "So serious"), but then again, if ELO had broken up in 1978 we would be saying that you could read that through songs like "It's over" or "Stepping out" and that Jeff's mood shows all over "Out of the Blue". In conclussion, I don't think we would be doing these judgements if we didn't know beforehand the context surrpunding BOP.
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Post by ShardEnder on Nov 15, 2014 1:23:58 GMT
Jeff may have been under contractual obligations to deliver one final album following the reduction of Secret Messages to a single disc, but to say he rushed out what became the final ELO product under his leadership is just wrong - especially when you consider how much effort he put into the end result, as proved by its countless outtakes.
Although it's never been confirmed, I have a strong feeling someone at Jet (or possibly Epic) rejected what Jeff offered them in 1985, possibly because the lyrics clearly stated his growing disillusion at being stuck in a seemingly endless record-tour cycle when all he wanted to do was branch out into producing for other artists...
In the year or so before starting this project, he'd worked with Dave Edmunds, who then introduced him to George Harrison. Suddenly being the genius behind ELO wasn't enough, though I'm in no doubt Jeff relied on material from the vault to help pad out his original vision for Balance Of Power.
While I can't yet prove this, the early take of Caught In A Trap (AKA In For The Kill) has an entire verse that describes almost perfectly the original concept for the Secret Messages cover, suggesting it dates from that period. Additionally, it's likely no coincidence that more upfront tracks such as Destination Unknown and Caught In A Trap remained b-sides.
Of course, the fact he dusted off Endless Lies further adds some weight to this theory, and quite why he chose that particular leftover is rather obvious. Had Jeff not been voted down by someone, I'm sure his version of the last ELO record would have been an even more explicit diary of his mind circa 1985.
Yes, the overall production was now more cold and mechanical than ever, yet in terms of lyrics Balance Of Power is a greater statement overall than even Out Of The Blue or Discovery. At this point in his life, Jeff was being held back professionally and feeling equally troubled personally, desperate to escape.
Getting To The Point, Sorrow About To Fall, Send It, Caught In A Trap and Destination Unknown could either be applied to his crumbling group or failing second marriage, while the likes of Is It Alright indicate the problem was more with his own relationship as opposed to being just a band matter.
Whether you like it or not, the context of Jeff's output throughout the years is absolutely crucial. Balance Of Power, much like the albums I've mentioned before, comes from a more difficult part in his life. By contrast, Discovery and Zoom were heavily inspired due to positive changes that occurred.
Although his work is often universal and quite abstract, much of Jeff Lynne's soul has been woven into his music as well. Had the circle been completed with Hello My Old Friend serving as an intentional bookend to 10538 Overture, he would have not only been waving goodbye to his old life in Birmingham, but also repeating the reason ELO existed in the first place.
This important piece took the idea Jeff launched with Roy Wood, picking up where The Beatles left off in the fade to I Am The Walrus, using the same basic descending chord formula plus a similar use of strings and non-musical sounds, all building to a cacophony. Therefore, maybe Balance Of Power very much WAS a mere afterthought?
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Post by Helmut83 on Nov 15, 2014 2:30:30 GMT
ShardEnder: you may have misinterpreted me. I didn't say the context isn't important. What I was trying express is that we judge the albums already knowing their context, and consequently "see" things in those songs that we probably wouldn't be seeing if we hadn't known the context. It's what in Spanish we say "speaking with Monday's newspaper". To make a parallelism, it's as when you see the picture of someone who you already know is an asassin and you think "yes, he looks to be a troubled person".
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Post by Rob 2095 on Nov 15, 2014 2:55:17 GMT
PowWow, you forgot to add the option of "Where am I... what is this?"
It has often been written and said that BOP was a contract fulfilling album, but I'll also have to echo Skyclad in saying that it was most likely recorded over a period of many months. 'Maybe Lynne found it hard to focus on because of the situations and mindsets he found himself in at the time. 'Who knows... it's not a great album, but it isn't nonsense, either.
Surrpunding.
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Post by Rob 2095 on Nov 15, 2014 3:00:52 GMT
To make a parallelism, it's as when you see the picture of someone who you already know is an asassin and you think "yes, he looks to be a troubled person". ... or when you see a circus clown in person and think "he probably went to a special college" or "oh my god, he's holding a bloody butcher knife!".
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Post by Helmut83 on Nov 15, 2014 3:18:26 GMT
Exactly! I couldn't have said it any better myself.
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Post by vinyldude on Nov 15, 2014 5:24:20 GMT
BOP definitely has a tired out sound...but how Jeffs musical visions changed through ELO's catalogue is pretty interesting. You have the ambitious (and possibly tongue-in-cheek) No Answer, the highly experimental ELO 2 which primarily aims to build upon 'extended pop form' by combining rock with elongated and complex musical passages (eh), to OOTD which I feel is him trying to further figure out his classical-rock fusion, which leads to ELDORADO...an epic in so many ways, but he wasn't done yet. FTM is tougher, since the songs become shorter but is basically ELDORADO with more punch, and less concept in an attempt to add more pop sensibility.
Then of course, yaddah yaddah, ANWR and OOTB, his commercial output, sonic masterpieces, etc etc. His ultimate "sell-out" album Discovery (which happens to be my favorite, as sugary as the album is it was WAY too ahead of its time sonically). Then his synth-pop experiment TIME (also A favorite amongst fans of electronic, dubstep, techno, etc.) then, an album that I attribute its lack of explosiveness to maybe smokin a bit too much ganja (could be wrong...) SECRET MESSAGES. so by this point Jeff had greatly evolved then...devolved? I percieve BOP as his album that would put ELO to rest. Very melancholy, exhausted, but still rich. May not be ELO's best album, its not "great" in ELO standards (though compared to the music from that particular time, it beats out MOST). After all, we need to remember that ELO are being rediscovered and rewritten as a truly classic band, and is being recognized for its moody and thoughtful musical approach, be it quirky cellos and violins or cold lifeless synths. ELO's music has COLOR and BOP still has a lot. Mostly gray. But still a bit of color.
(...Secret Lives is the only ELO song I truly DON'T like though...)
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Post by Helmut83 on Nov 15, 2014 5:56:43 GMT
OOTD = Out of the Day?
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Post by janne on Nov 15, 2014 8:16:23 GMT
You could sense a shift when Balance of Power came out. It's still a good album, but you get the feeling that Jeff was going through the motions. (Zoom, of course, is really a Jeff solo album, so that one doesn't even count as an ELO album.)
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Post by Southernman on Nov 15, 2014 8:44:35 GMT
Don't be so pedantic. He meant OTTB - On The Third Blue
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