Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record
Like many a 70s artist, Electric Light Orchestra were pretty slicked up after putting a few albums, and in a way ELO were something of a polished version of the Move, so we’re basically talking about as pure a pop band for the era that there was. The Beatles influence is still pretty strong but not quite like it used to be and the overly symphonic stylings had settle down a bit. The refrain “Do you, do you want my love?” is one I couldn’t remember getting away from as a young kid in England so in a way my opinions of some of this were formed practically before I was entirely conscious. To say the least, I prefer them earlier, although there is some nice music on here not totally imprinted on me. A case of one of those records being big enough that it’s hard to get anything remotely objective from the experience.
Graphite - Chesnut Loke
There’s so much great early British rock that the bottom of the barrel stuff like Graphite is more or less only interesting by comparison to better groups. I suppose one of the intangibles of any professional group is a certain confidence or a lack of thinking about it too much; Graphite present the opposite, it’s as if the band and the songs only barely hang together by threads. I know there’s a good chunk of fans out there who like it this raw, but given the ambition at work, which reminds me of anything from the Small Faces to something like Gracious or Gnidrolog, it’s usually just kind of awkward and given the length of this, filled out well over 70s minutes, it wears out its welcome fairly quick. I’m actually thinking something like a 6 or 7 for this, but I’ll need another listen or two to be sure.