Balance of Power (album)


Balance of Power is the eleventh studio album by the Electric Light Orchestra. It was released in 1986. It is the final album by the band to feature co-founder Bev Bevan on drums, as well as the last album to feature a significant contribution from keyboardist Richard Tandy.

Recording

During sessions for the previous album Secret Messages, bass guitarist Kelly Groucutt departed and the group was pared down to a trio of Jeff Lynne, Richard Tandy and Bev Bevan. Recording for the album began in mid-1984, with a planned release for Spring 1985. The addition of several synthesizer tracks and mixing work by Reinhold Mack to the album caused its release to be pushed back to March 1986.
Bandleader Jeff Lynne took a one-man-band approach to the recording, doing the production, guitar work, synthesizers, and percussion on the album mostly by himself, though keyboardist Richard Tandy made some key musical contributions as well. Describing their recording process, Richard Tandy said that "the usual way was to have a stack of keyboards in the control room, and me and Jeff playing along to a drum track, and Bev adding his things later."
The track "Endless Lies" features Lynne doing a vocal delivery reminiscent of Roy Orbison. Lynne said in a 2013 interview: "I played Roy 'Endless Lies' in his house, and I went, 'This is me trying to copy you in the middle; have a listen'. He listened and he chuckled, and he went, 'That's actually pretty good'." The song was originally recorded for the double LP version of Secret Messages, but was removed from Secret Messages when that album was downscaled to a single album. It reappears on Balance of Power in a slightly reworked and more compact form.

Release

The album is originally issued on the Jet label in various countries however was corrected to epic shortly after. Europe's CD releases were on CDEPC26467 in March 1986. The US and Japan CD releases were on CBS Associated.
The single "Calling America" was a Top 40 hit. The video for "Calling America" was shot in Paris, and contains shots of the band playing in front of Centre Georges Pompidou. A video was also made for the single "So Serious."
A remastered version of the album was released in 2007 by Legacy Recordings. This reissue featured seven bonus tracks, including an alternate version of "Heaven Only Knows", B-sides "Caught in a Trap" and "Destination Unknown", and previously unreleased songs like "In for the Kill".

Tour and aftermath

For the first time in four years, ELO played live concerts and TV appearances to promote the album in the UK and Europe. The touring lineup consisted primarily of Lynne on lead vocals and electric guitar, Bevan on drums, and Richard Tandy on keyboards. Also in the touring band were Louis Clark on keyboards, Mik Kaminski on violin and synthesizer, Dave Morgan on backing vocals, acoustic guitar, and vocoder, and Martin Smith on bass guitar. For one UK show, George Harrison also performed in a guest appearance.
They played as the opening act for Rod Stewart a handful of times, including on their final show on 13 July 1986 in Stuttgart, Germany. This would be the band's last live concert for fifteen years.
Balance of Power was the last studio album by the Electric Light Orchestra before their initial disbanding. The band name was briefly resurrected in 2001, then changed to "Jeff Lynne's ELO" from 2014 onwards.

Track listing

All songs written by Jeff Lynne.

Personnel

;Additional personnel