Cheap Face the Music (Music) (Electric Light Orchestra) Price

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Customer Reviews of Face the Music

FIRE ON HIGH
This has to be my favorite album from ELO. It shows their complete versatility and their coming of age. The whole band shines here, even though it seems that Jeff Lynne is prepared to steal the spotlight. FACE THE MUSIC finally had ELO on a multitude of radio stations from AM to AOR. "Fire on High" was even used by ABC's Wide World of Sports for years. Most people remember "Strange Magic" and "Evil Woman" from airplay in 1975 and 1976. Both were huge hits and allowed the band to breath a sigh of relief. The limelight was there and Lynne, Bev Bevan, Richard Tandy, and the others were standing firmly in it.

Beyond what you heard on the radio or TV, even though you may not of known it was ELO, is music that is very respectable. "Poker" is one of the harder rockers the band had done up to that time and it is my all-time favorite. With ELO you always get the great strings, keyboards, vocals, and harmonies; FACE THE MUSIC is no different, except it set the standard that they would have to live up to for the rest of their careers. Other great songs include "Nightrider" and "Waterfall". Not just another ELO release, this is the pinnacle of their success. The other perfect disc I would point to from them would be OUT OF THE BLUE. This is atypical 70's music, but is none-the-less great!

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ELO's Greatest Disc
1975's "Face The Music" was ELO's fifth album, and it remains my personal favorite ELO disc to this day. It was the first ELO album I ever bought, and it made me a lifelong fan. I was completely blown away by the album's most famous trio of songs that I kept hearing on the radio: the magnificent orchestral rocker, "Fire On High," and the instant pop classics "Evil Woman" & "Strange Magic." And I was equally thrilled by the album's other musical gems, such as "Waterfall," "Nightrider," "Down Home Town," and the dreamy album closer, "One Summer Dream." I love the band's Beatle-esque flair for melody, their fine musicianship & production, and the excellent singing, songwriting, and guitar work of leader Jeff Lynne. Great stuff all the way.Capturing the group right smack in the middle of the 70's, "Face The Music" is the Electric Light Orchestra at their most creative. I enjoy all of the band's albums, including other great works like "On The Third Day," "Out Of The Blue" and "Time," but "Face The Music" is the one that I have the most fondness for. Now, if only those folks at Sony Music would give this album a long-overdue remaster treatment....one can dream. :-)

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4.5 stars - A transitional album
Face The Music (1975.) Electric Light Orchestra's fifth album.

By 1975, Electric Light Orchestra had managed to create four excellent albums - Their self-titled debut (known in America as No Answer), Electric Light Orchestra II, On The Third Day, and Eldorado. It was amazing how few albums it took the band to recover from the loss of original co-frontman Roy Wood, but Jeff Lynne managed to take creative control and put it to good use. Although all four of these albums were great in their own way, the fact of the matter was simple - The band just wasn't achieving the mass popularity and radio air time that they so desperately needed. The band needed to broaden its horizons once more. For their fifth album, Face The Music, they did just that. The album was released in the latter months of 1975. Read on for my review.

It's with this album that Electric Light Orchestra began to take their music in a slightly more pop-oriented direction. Although this move has killed many a good musical artist (Def Leppard comes to mind), the Electric Light Orchestra is only strengthed by this transformation, which both improved their sound and brought them the popularity that they desired. More hits can be found here than on most other Electric Light Orchestra albums. Among them are the incredible instrumental Fire On High, the straight-up classic rocker Evil Woman, and the slow and melodic Strange Magic. These are the popular tunes here, but are by no means the only good products this album has to offer. Waterfall, for instance, is a beautiful ballad that sounds something like a cross between the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young classic Our House and Ozzy Osbourne's solo ballad I'm So Tired. And, of course, the band throws in the orchestral instrumentation that they are so widely known for. Nightrider is another excellent tune that fuses classic rock stylings with those you'd only expect from the band. If you wanted to introduce a friend of yours to Electric Light Orchestra, Nightrider would be a good first song to play for them - it beautifully demonstrates exactly what the band is all about. The fast-paced melodic stylings of Poker are also excellent. This song uses synthesizers more heavily than the other songs on the album, but it puts them to damn good use. Down Home Town has a bit more of a bluesy rock sound to it, and in this track, Jeff Lynne's vocals have a Van Morrison sound to them. And, of course, the band closes out the album with the excellent One Summer Dream. All in all, another damn fine album.

Over the years, this (like any other Electric Light Orchestra album) has been issued on CD a number of times worldwide, and remastered. However, some issues of the album are lacking the extended instrumental intro to Fire On High (the same part of the song that is cut when the song is played on the radio.) Fortunately, the readily available American version of the album has restored the intro. Make sure you're buying the latest American version of the album (the latest as of June 13, 2004), so that you don't get stiffed.

Face The Music marked another transitional period for everyone's favorite classical classic rockers. The band was really beginning to come of age and discover the sound that would go onto make them extremely successful. The band has released a number of damn good albums over the years, and while not the finest, this one does stand the test of time. If you're new to the band, this one makes an excellent starting point.