Balance Of Power - ELO
Released 3rd March 1986
Track Listing: 1) Heaven Only Knows 2) So Serious 3) Getting To The Point 4) Secret Lives 5) Is It Alright 6) Sorrow About to Fall 7) Without Someone 8) Calling America 9) Endless Lies 10) Send It This, ELO's eleventh studio album (and last before the group's initial disbandment in late 1986) is something of an enigma. There's not a bad song on it- not one! First single 'Calling America' is almost irritatingly catchy, 'Send It' has the feel of a synthesised Buddy Holly track, and it's almost impossible to not tap your feet to 'Is It Alright'. And yet, still, there is something missing. This album does not show the ELO we know and love at all. The songs are tuneful and pleasant to listen to and vary in style to a certain degree, but you get the feeling it's all just a little too well-played, a little too slick for its own good. It's almost forced. This is an album that is lacking emotion (something which was a vital part of ELO's music in the early days) and not only sounds far more watered-down (presumably to attract a wider range of listeners) than necessary, but also presents the band as something of a one-trick pony. You almost want them to do something really crazy- revive some of the strange instruments Roy Wood played in the band before his early departure, perhaps, or even hit a wrong note- just to prove to you that they're still human, that there's still some feeling in there somewhere. Even the vague wackiness of the album artwork seems a little too careful, like it's desperately trying to be 'out there' and 'different' but fails, resulting in it looking even more staid and unadventurous than it would have done otherwise. The only moment on the album in which we see a glimmer of the 'ELO of old' (think 'Out Of The Blue' and 'Time') spattering its faint rays through the often sickly slickness of the other tracks is on the rousing 'Getting To The Point'. However, despite this track's obvious superiority over the others, due to a strike at the distribution section of Epic records at the time of its release it only reached a measly no. 97 in U.K. charts, making it more than worthy of the label 'underrated'. It is just a shame that the same cannot be said for the rest of the album.
