An unusual beginning...
William M. Feagin | Upstate New York, USA | 01/16/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"...for this one sounds nothing like what ELO would record later. This, of course, is due to the presence of Roy Wood; ELO emerged from the ashes of The Move, of which Roy Wood and Bev Bevan had been founding members in 1965-66. One by one, the other originals dropped out--bassist Ace Kefford first in 1968, shortly after The Move's first LP, to be replaced by Rick Price; then Trevor Burton in 1969, and he was not replaced, as the band continued as a quartet; finally Carl Wayne in 1970, following the group's second LP, Shazam!, to be replaced by Jeff Lynne, formerly of the Idle Race. Wood, Bevan, Price and Lynne recorded the third Move LP, Looking On, then Price quit and the remaining trio recorded Message From the Country at the same time as this album. Wood, Bevan and Lynne announced their intention to "continue where 'I Am the Walrus' left off" and retired the Move name, becoming the Electric Light Orchestra and augmenting themselves with a cellist and a violinist.
Just a side note to Darth Kommissar--the reason this album was titled No Answer on its US release in early '72 is not, in fact, unknown, but was due to a communication problem with United Artists, ELO's US label at the time (they left UA for CBS in 1978 due to what they claimed in a lawsuit was the label's flooding the market with defective copies of Out of the Blue, their ambitious '77 double LP).
In any case, Electric Light Orchestra/No Answer--whatever you choose to call it--was greatly unlike anything that came after it, and Roy Wood's presence was most likely the greatest factor in this. He wrote the bulk of the material here, as Lynne had yet to develop his songwriting strength, and it's pretty amazing. "10538 Overture" has these wonderful choogling strings driving the song along, and of course you have instrumentals like "Manhattan Rumble (19th Street Massacre)," which ELO didn't do a great many of later on ("Fire on High" from Face the Music and "The Whale" from Out of the Blue both come to mind). This is worth checking out, if only for the transition between The Move and ELO."
