A blast of hormone-fueled power pop by one of the bands that created the template for the genre. Eric Carmen’s image as a sensitive balladeer may predominate as the result of his solo career and hits like “All By Myself”. But those four albums his former band recorded stand as a reminder that he was once a true belter fronting a pretty hard-hitting rock band.
We used to have good times together/But now I feel them slip away/It makes me cry to see love die/So sad to watch good love go bad…
I’ll tell you what else is so sad: the thought that we’ve probably heard the last of the Electric Light Orchestra, one of the truly iconoclastic bands to emerge in the 70’s. As nice a tribute to the music of his formative years as Jeff Lynne’s Long Wave is, it is also one more reminder that we can’t expect a reunion tour by the band who carved such a one-of-a-kind British symphonic rock niche.
So I’ll direct the following to anyone reading this who was born too early, or too late, or was too much of a rock snob or punk music fan to care about the Electric Light Orchestra:
Beginning with the “Showdown” single in late 1973 (a favorite of John Lennon’s as the story is told) Lynne and his supporting cast released a series of ever more ambitious albums (Eldorado, Face the Music, A New World Record) culminating with the platinum-selling double LP Out of the Blue in 1977. With its gatefold cover adorned with a spaceship that brought to mind 2001: A Space Odyssey and simultaneously punched up the Star Wars/Close Encounters zeitgeist, Out of the Blue was an album you bought and rushed home with. And beyond the eye-popping artwork, the 17-song, 70-minute epic didn’t disappoint musically. In fact, in addition to its four charting singles (“Turn to Stone”, “Sweet Talkin’ Woman”, “Mr. Blue Sky” and “It’s Over”) the abundance of great album tracks is truly stunning. It was the band’s artistic and commercial high water mark.
It was also archetypical of the kind of commercial pop rock (ABBA, Journey, Toto, Foreigner, et al) that has found favor with next-generation fans, musicians and tastemakers. No less a standard-bearer of nouveau geek chic than the Decemberists made “Mr. Blue Sky” an encore of their live set during their breakout tour of 2006. And Doctor Who, Britian’s foremost cult TV phenomenon, dedicated an entire episode subplot to the music of ELO. So if you still think you’re too cool for this band, think again.
Is Jeff Lynne’s Long Wave a bad LP? Not by a long shot. As this cover of the Everly Brothers’ 1960 hit demonstrates, Lynne has a knack for finding the essence of the song, marinating it in that trademark Lynne sound, and creating something pleasant to the ear. Is his sound a watered-down Beatles imitation as some say? Good question. I’ll answer it with two more questions: 1) Aren’t most bands some form of the very same thing? and 2) Is there anyone more worth imitating?
No, I’ll never have a problem with Jeff Lynne being such an obvious Beatle disciple. My only lament isn’t that he gives us “watered-down Beatles”. It’s that at this point perhaps all he can offer is watered-down Electric Light Orchestra.
The 2002 Rykodisc Kinks tribute This is Where I Belong focused not on the “tired and true” Ray Davies-penned material; there’s nary a “Lola” or “You Really Got Me” or “Come Dancing” in the bunch. Instead, a collection of well-qualified, well-respected men and women such as Jonathan Richman, Bebel Gilberto, Steve Forbert, Ron Sexsmith and Matthew Sweet knock around some of the more interesting second-tier Davies material–the deep cuts.
So tunes like “Starstruck”, “Victoria”, “Picture Book” and “Muswell Hillbilly” get a fresh look-in. And power poppers Fountains of Wayne turn up the volume on “Better Things”, an anthem for graduates if I ever heard one.
Brainstorm, the Latvian pop rock/band–not to be confused with Brainstorm the American funk/R&B band from Michigan, or Brainstorm the German power metal band, or Brainstorm the experimental pop band from Portland, or Brainstorm the doom metal band from Ukraine, or Brainstorm the punk band from Serbia, or Brainstorm the jazz rock band from Germany, or Brainstorm the death metal band from Bulgaria, or Brainstorm the hardcore band from Salt Lake City, or Brainstorm aka electronic musician Moby, or Brainstorm the rapper from Washington–attained international notoriety when they finished third in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2000 (although they’d been around since 1989).
Since 1999 they’ve been releasing albums both in Latvian and English. The band remain active despite having lost bassist Gundars Mauševics in a 2004 car accident.
The Move, the Kinks, Small Faces, and even the Delfonics and Syd Barrett-era Floyd all seem to be points of reference for the Bees (formerly Band of Bees) on their Free the Bees LP, which takes its listener on a kaleidoscopic tour of sixties rock and pop. This is a band that time forgot.
“Chicken Payback” sounds like someone randomly rearranged the lyrics of those 60’s dance-craze-of-the-month songs (“The Payback”, “Camel Walk”, “Mickey’s Monkey”, “Funky Chicken”, “Donkey Walk”) perhaps with Austin Powers sitting in as executive producer.
Nilsson: “The Most Beautiful World in the World” (1972)
Harry Nilsson…where do I begin? Underrated singer, overlooked songwriter, a favorite of the Beatles, a bad influence on John Lennon, and kind of a wacky character. But never dull.
After his massive breakthrough album, 1971’s Nilsson Schmilsson, and just when he’d caught the world’s attention with his Grammy-winning worldwide hit recording of Badfinger’s “Without You”, Harry seemed bored already with the whole platinum-selling record thing. Follow-up Son of Schmilsson featured: a lead single with an F-bomb in the chorus, a false take interrupted by a belch, a Jim Stafford-esque parody country song, and a sing-along featuring residents of a retirement home with a chorus of “I’d rather be dead than wet my bed“.
The album’s closing track is a cheeky tribute to…the world. Like, personified. Hence:
Your mountains when you’re mad/Your rivers when you’re sad/And those deep blue seas
I love you for your snow/Your deserts down below/I love the way you wear your trees
The most beautiful world in the world/And though there are times when I doubt you/I just couldn’t stay here without you
So when you get older and over your shoulder/You look back to see if it’s real
Tell her she’s beautiful, roll the world over/And give her a kiss…and a feel
Every Moment Has A Song 