Face the Music (1975)


 

  1. Fire on High
  2. Waterfall
  3. Evil Woman
  4. Nightrighter
  5. Poker
  6. Strange Magic
  7. Down Home Town
  8. One Summer Dream

 

After the cinematic ambition of Eldorado, Jeff Lynne and company decided to take a small step back — or at least a sideways shuffle — with Face the Music. The grand concept album was shelved, and in its place came something simpler, brighter, and unapologetically commercial. It’s a lean, confident record that tightens the band’s sound without dulling the edges. And while it doesn’t reinvent anything, it might be the moment where ELO finally nailed what they were best at.

The album opens with Fire on High, which might fool you into thinking they hadn’t learned a thing. It’s all swirling strings, backwards vocals, dramatic choral stabs, and an ominous intro that sounds like it wandered in from an abandoned prog rock opera. It’s fun, it’s ambitious — and it’s also the weakest thing here. Not bad, just overcooked.

But once the theatrics clear, everything else lands beautifully. Evil Woman and Strange Magic were all over the radio at the time — the former a groove-heavy, string-kissed rocker, the latter a dreamy, slow-motion glide through orchestral pop. Both are deserved hits, but what’s most impressive is how seamlessly they blend into the rest of the record. That’s the trick here: there are no real weak spots. Take out the two singles and you still have an album that plays like a greatest hits compilation that never was.

Down Home Town is a brief detour into western-flavored whimsy, complete with twang and tongue-in-cheek charm. Poker is ELO at their most aggressive — which, in ELO terms, means it still has a violin solo — and it’s a mystery why it never became a concert staple. Nightrider gives bassist Kelly Groucutt a brief vocal spotlight and a layered, propulsive arrangement that could’ve easily made a dent on the charts. And One Summer Dream and Waterfall both float along in the same hazy, sweet atmosphere as Strange Magic, trading bombast for slow-burn beauty.

At just eight tracks, Face the Music feels tight, maybe even a little short — but only because there’s not a wasted second in the bunch. And that’s part of the album’s charm. For once, ELO didn’t overreach. They trimmed the fat, pulled back on the conceptual sprawl, and focused on writing smart, radio-ready pop songs with just enough orchestral shimmer to keep the identity intact.

Some say this is where the band peaked. Not commercially — that was still to come — but creatively. Before the spaceship stages, the laser light shows, and the eventual overexposure, there was this: a nearly flawless collection of songs from a band finally confident in its strange, string-laced skin.

They weren’t quite superstars yet. But they were close. And they sounded ready for liftoff.


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