Kevin Mathews: April, 2001

FLASHBACK!

Following pop music is a strange befuddling pre-occupation at times. Well, it is certainly not at all like following your favourite football (that's soccer to you yanks) club. You see, it's not considered appropriate for a supporter of one football club to change your loyalties to another - I mean, it's just not done. I presume this applies to basketball, hockey and American football teams. Which means that no matter how badly your team is playing, you're supposed to hang in there and give them the support even though at the time they probably do not deserve it.

So, why is such blind faith not part of the pop music fan equation? This often happens when bands ultimately grow older and the problem is either they change their style or they don't. In the former case, think of the difference in U2's music between Rattle & Hum and Achtung Baby (or between OK Computer and Kid A to give a contemporary example) and in the latter case, well, the Stones (Aerosmith?) are a prime example.

Back in the late seventies, I picked up ELO's New World Record for two reasons. One, it had a really cool sleeve (true of most ELO releases post 1975) and second, I was given to understand that ELO was rather Beatlesque - always a good sign. Suffice to say, I fell in love with the album (Shangri-La remains to this day one of my favourite songs of all time) and the band and proceeded to pick up whatever ELO album I could find. So in quick succession, I bought Out of the Blue, On the Third Day, Eldorado, Face the Music and the then latest release Discovery. I recall playing Discovery incessantly in the final days of 1979, totally besotted with those gorgeous ballads - Need Her Love and Midnight Blue, and awed with Jeff Lynne's ability to make a disco beat groovy - Shine A Little Love and Last Train To London.

When the next proper ELO album came out (1980's Xanadu does not count) - Time - my tastes had changed somewhat (I had started to listen to a lot of post punk/new wave/electro pop) and the album disappointed me greatly - the songs came across to me as corny and old hat. Therefore, I decided to drop ELO from my 'favourite bands' list and ignore the subsequent Secret Messages and Balance of Power albums.

In fact, I became ashamed of possessing ELO albums in my collection (Note: I also have the first two Duran Duran and Air Supply albums, eeks! What did I know?) (Heh-Air Supply is/was very cool. :-) ed.) and would agree with my Velvet Underground-Jesus and Mary Chain-obsessed friends that ELO was crap. I mean, it just was not cool to like ELO!

But lately, I am beginning to see the folly of my ways. After going through a certain re-orientation of my musical tastes in the mid-1990s - realising that pure pop and not ironic rock (thank you grunge for the wake up call) was going to save the universe, I checked in my prejudices at the door, picked a couple of ELO CDs on sale, wiped the dust off those old LPs and reminded myself what held me in awe all those years ago. Gorgeous tunes, ornate production and an epic sweeping sound but always retaining a sense of good old fun, a trademark of the sixties mindset.

The recent Flashback box set, with its Lynne-directed re-masters of classic material also opened my eyes to the maligned latter period of ELO history - the eighties output. I have indeed concluded that Time is an underrated masterpiece of sorts. As Lynne attempted to recall the conceptual ambition of Eldorado but set to the approach of the electronic pop of its day, songs like Twilight (that "cackling" sample in the intro is a scream!), Here is the News, From The End of the World and Yours Truly, 2095 have no trouble sitting comfortably next to the synth pop of Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, Human League or OMD. Furthermore, 21st Century Man takes particular significance considering the period we are currently in.

And so, I am well and truly back as a card-carrying ELO fan! Looking forward to the upcoming new Zoom album and the various re-issues lined up, it is indeed great to be back.

I presume in ten years time, I will be feeling guilty for dismissing U2 for Zooropa, Pop and that awful latest excuse of an album!!!! Or maybe not….

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