ELO - Down But Not Out

Review Score: (6/10)
"Balance of Power" would be ELO's last album with producer/lead vocalist/songwriter Jeff Lynne, and the band sounds tired. It's quite a decline from the snappiness of their previous 1983 effort "Secret Messages." The opening keyboard riff of "Secret Lives" is frighteningly close to Christopher Cross' "All Right." "Getting To The Point" is a rewrite of "Don't Walk Away" from the "Xanadu" soundtrack while "Calling America" copies the theme of "Telephone Line." The band still has some spark left, though. "Calling" and "So Serious" continue the band's knack for upbeat hooks, while the arrangement of "Without Someone" effectively illustrates the glum, overcast mood of its singer.

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