Electric Light Orchestra - Balance Of Power [Japanese Ed. 7 bonus tracks] (1986)

Year: 3 March 1986 (CD Feb 21, 2007)
Label: Sony Music (Japan), MHCP 1163
Style: Progressive Pop, Pop Rock
Country: Birmingham, England
Time: 56:17
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 386 Mb

Charts: UK #9, AUS #49, AUT #29, GER #18, JPN #22, NLD #20, NOR #4, SWE #3, SWI #10, US #49. UK: Silver
You won’t hear casual fans talk much about the 1986 album Balance of Power when discussing Electric Light Orchestra’s body of work. It lacked the big-hit singles of previous ELO albums. If it’s remembered at all by most folks, it’s as the final ELO album before Lynne essentially put the band on a 15-year hiatus.
We believe this album deserves a fresh listen if you’ve dismissed it. Balance of Power might sound more like the work of a synth-rock band than it resembles ELO’s famous mixing of classical instruments with rock and roll. But Lynne’s songcraft and production wizardry are all over the record, which sounds sharp and energized today—well beyond its reputation as a contractual obligation. Let’s explore Balance of Power.
There’s no way around it: Balance of Power likely wouldn’t have happened if Jeff Lynne didn’t have one more album to go on ELO’s record contract. In fact, had the 1983 album Secret Messages been a double-album like Lynne had intended it to be, it’s possible he would have jettisoned ELO at that point.
Why was Lynne anxious to step away from the band he had started and made him a rock hero? Well, the band’s success rate had diminished once the ’70s became the ’80s, more due to changing musical tastes than anything they were doing poorly. On top of that, Lynne didn’t enjoy the touring and promoting aspect of being the leader of a band, much preferring to knock around in the studio perfecting the music.
Band relations had also been steadily diminishing. By the time of Balance of Power, ELO was a three-piece, with only drummer Bev Bevan and keyboardist Richard Tandy on board with Lynne. By all accounts, Lynne did the yeoman’s work on the record anyway.
After making some videos and doing a mini-tour to promote the album, Lynne walked away from ELO. He intended to stick to production, but that work inadvertently led to Lynne joining the Traveling Wilburys. It wouldn’t be until 2001 he would record again under the ELO banner with the album Zoom (at which point Lynne was pretty much the only band member involved in the making of the record).
Knowing the context in which Balance of Power was made, you might expect a pedestrian affair, with Lynne simply painting by numbers to get everything out of the way. Instead, you get the opposite—a record where it’s clear that he was meticulously trying to create something that sounded invigorated and full of life.
(ful version: americansongwriter.com/behind-the-album-making-the-case-for-balance-of-power-the-last-elo-album-before-jeff-lynne-took-a-wilbury-break/)

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