10538 Overture is the only decent song on here. These orchestrations are overwrought and clunky. ELO is hard to rate for me; as a kid, I liked many of their tunes that became staples of film soundtracks in the late80's, early 90's but grew to hate their heavily orchestrated sound as a teen. I still like their copious billboard hits and progressive art-pop staples, and can appreciate the cohesiveness of their heavily themed albums of the first 10 years of the group. I just think this group is ... read more
ELO's debut album had some strong potential here, they tried to showcase their theme of mixing classical music with experimental rock, in some cases it actually did work out pretty well, especially in some classic tracks like "10538 Overture", but then the rest of the tracks have really messy production value and have not aged particularly well (in fact, it feels like some of the songs were only half-finished). Not the greatest start but we can only hope it'll get better from here,
I can't believe I'm making this comparison but ELO sounds like Gentle Giant on this album
It is symphonic rock with a huge emphisis on the symphony aspect with surprisingly metallic and agressive production and writing. Some moments don't clash as well but it's a pretty great debut.
ELO's debut album had some strong potential here, they tried to showcase their theme of mixing classical music with experimental rock, in some cases it actually did work out pretty well, especially in some classic tracks like "10538 Overture", but then the rest of the tracks have really messy production value and have not aged particularly well (in fact, it feels like some of the songs were only half-finished). Not the greatest start but we can only hope it'll get better from here,
1 | 10538 Overture 5:30 | 91 |
2 | Look at Me Now 3:17 | 76 |
3 | Nellie Takes Her Bow 6:00 | 72 |
4 | Battle of Marston Moor (July 2nd, 1644) 6:03 | 72 |
5 | 1st Movement (Jumping Biz) 2:59 | 85 |
6 | Mr. Radio 5:04 | 80 |
7 | Manhattan Rumble (49th Street Massacre) 4:22 | 74 |
8 | Queen of the Hours 3:22 | 83 |
9 | Whisper in the Night 4:47 | 86 |