This year, Every Sunday Evening, Album Rock WXYG, The GOAT will feature a full album at 8:00 PM from the halcyon musical days of 1975. 1975 was one of the top Years in Album Rock history. Another year of tough choices every week. So many great ones to choose from.
We hope you’ll tune in next Sunday, March 30th to listen to “Face The Music”, the fifth studio album by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). It was released in September 1975 by United Artists Records. It was released in September 1975 by United Artists Records.
The album moved away from the large-scale classical orchestrated sound of the previous album, Eldorado, in favor of more "radio-friendly” songs, though the string sections are still very prominent. The new sound proved successful for the group, for Face the Music was the first ELO album to go platinum.
“Face The Music” is a very solid album. It was also their first recorded at Musicland in Munich, which became Jeff Lynne's preferred venue for cutting records. At the time, he was also generating songs at a breakneck pace and had perfected the majestic, quasi-Beatles-type style (sort of high-wattage Magical Mystery Tour) introduced two albums earlier. The sound is stripped down a bit on Face the Music, Louis Clark's orchestral contributions generally more subdued than on Eldorado, even when they compete with the band, as on "Strange Magic." The soulful "Evil Woman" was one of the most respectable chart hits of its era, and one of the best songs that Lynne ever wrote (reportedly in 30 minutes), while "Strange Magic" showed off his writing in a more ethereal vein. "One Summer Dream," which is written in a similar mode, also has a touchingly wistful mood. The requisite rock & roll number, "Poker," is a quicker tempo than anything previously heard from the band, the guitar is pumped up louder than ever. And "Down Home Town," an experiment in achieving a country & western sound, is incredibly fresh at this point.
Boisterous, hooky, diverse, occasionally ominous, and occasionally rockin’, “Face The Music” shows the band taking an experimental path that results in an album that continues the bands streak of taking what worked in their last album, and making something as, if not more excellent, as it is rich and full of heart. Mix that with the excellent blend of a big symphonic sound and their signature rock sound, good structure, superb production and composition, and razor sharp focus, and what you’ve got is an underrated gem from the mid ‘70s that does everything so well, that the relatively short length of the album will probably make you want more. Though, to be fair, the 8 tracks are all filled with so much depth and memorability, that it’ll still leave you feeling satisfied. It’s not only occasionally dark, but it’s also never afraid to be bouncy, and that’s part of what gives this album its wonderful and unique flavor. All of this makes this album criminally underrated, and to come out just one year later after the already amazing “Eldorado” is all the more applaudable. Do yourself a favor and face the music that this album brings, as it’s got enough strange magic that’ll run through your head like a waterfall—except, unlike them, the albums quality isn’t an illusion.
Face the Music has been described by Lynne as the turning point for ELO, for the chart performance of the album and the singles "Evil Woman" and "Strange Magic" saw the band progressing from minor stardom in the US to major success.
Tune In and Turn On next Sunday, March 30th, and every Sunday evening at 8:00 PM for The GOAT'S "The Long Play with Al Neff.”
