Customer Reviews

No Rewind

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"No Rewind" is an amazing foray into the kind of music the Electric Light Orchestra was making in the late 1970's. The production captures the Beatlesque sound that Jeff Lynne successfully co-opted, combined with the orchestral elements that put an original stamp on ELO. The Orchestra may be thought of as a cover band to some, but it contains 3 original ELOers and the pop prowess of Parthenon Huxley who seems as brilliant and creative as Lynne with a certain kind of understated expertise that models the ELO pattern with a kind of authenticity that can't be duplicated by a mere cover band. "Over London Skies" is the sincerest form of flattery with it's honest to goodness replication of all the symphonic elements and pop sensibilities of anything ELO from 1976 to 1982. This is prime time ELO without any pretense. In fact, the pop elements are more consistent on "No Rewind" which means you get a more complete album and not just a couple of singles. This album is fantastic. Can you imagine how "Twist and Shout" could get better? One listen to this over covered classic, and you'll find that this is the best version since John nearly lost his voice! "Can't Wait To See You" is another perfect ELO tune with all the harmonies and lush playing and production ebbed by those awesome strings. Of all the 5 star albums I've reviewed, this is the one to listen to. This album was independently produced by extremely smart men who understand the legacy behind their work. "No Rewind" furthers that legacy and even improves upon it. Find and enjoy!

I'm a big fan of ELO and I've bought all of their albums. Time is one of my favorite albums, and I love the music from the movie Xanadu.

In 1988, ELO drummer Bev Bevan left ELO to start his own band, which he called ELO Part II. I bought these albums as well, but was extremely disappointed. It wasn't even close to the old ELO sound.

In 2000, Bevan left ELO Part II and sold his share of the ELO name to Jeff Lynne, who then sued ELO Part II over their use of the name. They eventually changed their name to The Orchestra. They have released only a single album so far, No Rewind. It was a limited release and is fairly rare.

I recently came across this album being sold on Amazon. Being a packrat and one who can't stand letting a collection go uncompleted, I ordered it.

And I was amazed. The album is great! It sounds almost exactly like classic ELO; the style is very reminiscent of Out of the Blue. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear it was some lost album from the 70's. This album is way better than anything ELO Part II ever did, better than Zoom, and is even better than the final few ELO albums like Balance of Power.

This album is fantastic! High quality song writing and musicianship. I think it's better than many "real" ELO albums ("Time," "Secret Messages," "Balance of Power," "Zoom,") and on par with some of ELO's best albums ("Out of the Blue," "A New World Record," "Discovery.")

Every song is good, not a clunker in the lot. Parthenon Huxley and Eric Troyer both do a masterful job of writing and singing good songs, while also recreating the ELO sound. This is my favorite album of the '00 decade!

David's review pretty much sums it up for me: this is an incredible album filled with great songs from start to finish. While both ELO II albums had songs on each that really stood out, there were a few clunkers too; this whole album has NO fillers whatsoever (adding P.Hux was brilliant)! I really enjoyed LEO's (Bleu, Andy Sturmer, et. al.) faithful and fun homage to 70's era ELO ("Alpacas Orgling"), but this album does it even a little bit better. As much as I love the genius of Jeff Lynne, I didn't miss him at all on "No Rewind."

I am a pro musician, composer, producer, an many other things that don't matter - but this album does. So trust my opinion on this one. Obtain this album, from Amazon or directly from Parthenon Huxley's web site. It does seem hard to find from time to time elsewhere. As has been mentioned in other reviews, every song qualifies as good, and many songs can be described as great. I to grew up with ELO as my favorite band and one of my main inspirations as a songwriter and musician. I love Jeff Lynne as well, but what I came to find out is that I love the sound of the original ELO bassist and 2nd vocalist - Kelly Groucutt's voice just as much. Little did I realized how much he had to do with the original sound realized due to Lynne's producing abilities and Kelly's amazing voice.

So years later we are not talking about ELO or Jeff Lynne. We are now talking about "The Orchestra" a different band with some new members and some old ones formerly part of the original ELO and this remarkable recording. This album has a bit of Kelly singing, plus the fantastic vocals of Eric Troyer and Parthenon Huxley and Kelly Groucutt blended together and features many a song sung by Eric Troyer taking the lead, and what I consider to be one of the best songs ever written "Before We Go" which is sang by Kelly himself (with an intro by an original Beach Boy. The string arrangements are brilliant as always, thanks to Louis Clark's masterful skill - and we get to hear some exceptional solo violin work from Mik Kaminski, whose violin tone on this recording is the best I've ever heard from any violinist on any album - check out "Let Me Dream". I wish we could have heard more of Kelly on this album and fans of Phil Bates will be disappointed to know he was not involved with this album, (alas it is usually either Phil or Parthenon almost never the two together as they primarily do the same job.)Parthenon did an amazing job producing this album - though I feel that everyone contributed by nature of process. Their version of "Twist and Shout" is outstanding as well, Eric's vocals rivaling John Lennon's (but Eric can sing it over an over again night after night) and should be heard just for comparison if nothing else. The drum sound is fresh and exceptionally played by Gordon Townsend, who does a good job of being original but retaining some old school ELO style and sound with his kit. This is one of my top ten albums ever, and I hope to grow old listening and remembering the teams great accomplishment in these recordings. I hope others can enjoy it as much as I. I have even added "Before We Go "to my personal performance repertoire.

As a longtime ELO fan I've collected all the sidebar projects and the albums by the assorted spinoff groups. ELO Part II was pretty good, no complaints. The Orchestra? Amazing!

No, it's not Jeff Lynne but the songwriting is as tight and this, by far, outshines some of Jeff's last efforts (looking at you here "Balance of Power"). It's far more ELO than even "Zoom" (which I like quiet a bit).

The band is really tight, the production is fantastic and Eric Troyer can sing circles around most vocalists out there. I miss Bev Bevan but that's simply because he's been one of my favorite drummers for decades, Gordon Townsend is great and Louis Clark's orchestration is magnificent.

"No Rewind" is a remarkable achivement. An album that, at once, pays homage to it's forefathers and yet takes it beyond. It's not a cheap knock-off, it's a quality package and it's shame the Orchestra never really took off. My hat's off to the whole band.

Buy this CD, it won't disappoint if you're being fair to the work and not the Lynne legacy.

I love The Electric Light Orchestra. They were a great band with a great focus; Jeff Lynne gave them a sound and identity that was rarely out of sync with the whole concept or trade mark sound of his ELO vision. That being said I approached ELO Part II with a little skepticism back in the 90's. I was pleasantly very surprised. There were moments of real brilliance on their first two albums (Honest Men, 1000 Eyes, One More Tomorrow) when several of the songs could have fit comfortably on ELO albums. The problem was that there were also many songs that strayed very far away from the formula sound, songs that didn't have an ELO sound or feel mixed with those that did. There was no flow to the mix. I learned to take the good with the bad and have followed the course of this band with great interest. The live concert CD's they put out are great. On those they sound very much like the original ELO when they do the old tunes. The problem on the live CD's is similar to their problems with the Part II albums. The old ELO songs are great with an almost perfect ELO sound and feel, then they would ruin it with a song like "Whiskey Girls" and "Don't Wanna" that sound like crummy three chord bar band tripe.

After Bev Bevan leaving the band and more legal hassles with Jeff Lynne regarding use of the ELO name they became The Orchestra. Phil Bates was out and the band had a new lead singer songwriter P.Huxley. The result was this great CD. These guys finally found their own sound, lovingly influenced by the original ELO but not a clone. There is enough here to hint strongly at ELO (Over London Skies) but enough just outside of the sound to remain true to the overall ELO feel and style to make it their own. This is a great album.

For those of you who miss new ELO recordings this should tide you over. This band of 4 ex-ELO members relives the sound of ELO with the emphasis on the string section that was missing in the 80's which was more synthesiser. Vocals are by Eric Troyer and ex ELO guitarist Kelly Groucutt. Any fan of 60's rock remembers the great cover by ELO with "ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN" will love this bands version of "TWIST AND SHOUT".It starts off as a slow song and then eventually becomes the fast paced song you remember. Its been 5 years since they recorded a new CD but they still tour Europe extensively, so there's still hope. Eric's voice fits right in, like Jeff Lynne never left. This is the same band that was known as ELO Part II in the 90's butt jeff wanted the ELO name for his new release so hence the name change. Kelly and Eric have solo CD's out there as well from the 80's and 90's.

This album is a perfect example of the musicianship and lyrics that made Electric Light Orchestra so great. Sure, Jeff Lynne is missing from the mix, but these guys show they have experience and talent too!

The album is a great mix of upbeat sing-alongs and enough emotion to feel what they are saying. I was blown away by their rendition of "Shake It Up". I really miss this sort of songwriting and wish they would make more disks like this one.

this is a really nice record on its own merits, fun songs, immaculate production, a nice listen start to finish. im not ready to say that this is the missing elo album from the 70's like other reviewers but it is a worthy homage to the artistry of jeff lynne. id like to focus on "the orchestra" not elo....eric troyer is one of the best artist songwriters you have never heard and he is once again excellent as usual. the rest of the band really up'd the ante' on this one because this is clearly superior to any bev bevan inspired elo pt 2 record. i was a fan of elo2 i enjoyed those albums as well but this one has no filler..all songs are enjoyable.
**they do a very unusual version of twist and shout that is a very bold manuever, considering its such a hallowed song..they definetly put there stamp on it. "over london skies" and the title track are great tracks, actually all tracks are really good..a very worthy purchase if you like elo/jeff lynne or are just a fan of well produced rock n roll music. also try l.e.o. alpacas orgling which is another very
elo-inspired piece of work(although its not quite as strong as this cd)