Balance of Power is the final album of Electric Light Orchestra’s original era — a slick, synth-driven 1980s pop record that closed the book on the band before a fifteen-year hiatus. Released in 1986, it found ELO reduced to a trio and the orchestra long gone, but Jeff Lynne’s gift for a hook remained, producing the Top 40 hit ‘Calling America.’

The short version

Balance of Power (1986) is the eleventh studio album by Electric Light Orchestra, and the last of their original run. By now the band had shrunk to a trio — Jeff Lynne, keyboardist Richard Tandy and drummer Bev Bevan — and the lush orchestration of their 1970s peak had given way to a polished, contemporary synth-pop sound. Written, produced and largely played by Lynne himself, it yielded the hit single ‘Calling America’ before ELO disbanded, not to return until 2001.

The end of an era

By the mid-1980s, Electric Light Orchestra were a shadow of the multi-piece ensemble that had conquered the charts a decade earlier. The string players and much of the band had drifted away after 1983’s Secret Messages, and Jeff Lynne, increasingly focused on production work, was ready to move on — but a contractual obligation required one more ELO album. He reassembled the core trio of himself, Richard Tandy and long-serving drummer Bev Bevan, and set to work, playing most of the instruments himself with the help of the era’s digital technology. The result, tellingly, dispensed with the orchestra almost entirely.

The sound

Balance of Power is very much a product of 1986: a sleek, digital synth-pop album, built on programmed drums, banks of keyboards and Lynne’s ever-melodic songwriting, with the symphonic grandeur of classic ELO nowhere to be found. For some, that made it a disappointment — the ‘Orchestra’ in the name now purely nominal. But taken as a well-crafted slice of mid-1980s pop-rock, it has real strengths: Lynne’s ear for a hook is undimmed, his voice is warm and confident, and beneath the glossy production and upbeat tempos lie surprisingly melancholy songs about lost love and loneliness. It’s ELO adapting, perhaps reluctantly, to a new decade.

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The songs

The album’s standout is ‘Calling America,’ a bright, catchy single — despite its wistful lyric about disconnection — that gave ELO one last Top 40 hit. Elsewhere, ‘So Serious’ and ‘Secret Lives’ offer more of the same peppy, hook-laden pop, while ‘Getting to the Point’ and ‘Sorrow About to Fall’ slow things down into more reflective, melancholy territory that many fans rate among the album’s best. The songs are short and tightly constructed throughout, each built around a strong melody, even if the uniform 1980s production can blur them together on first listen.

Reception and legacy

Balance of Power was a modest success — reaching the UK Top 10 and spawning a genuine hit in ‘Calling America’ — but it was widely seen at the time as a lesser ELO record, its dated production and absent orchestra disappointing long-time fans. Over the years, though, it has found defenders who value its strong songwriting and its melancholy undercurrent. It proved to be the last ELO album for fifteen years, effectively ending the band’s original story; Jeff Lynne went on to great success as a producer and Traveling Wilbury, while Bev Bevan later toured a new version of the group as ELO Part II. As a farewell, it’s a quietly poignant one.

The verdict

Balance of Power is far from the place to start with ELO — the 1970s masterpieces come first, and newcomers should begin there — but it’s a more rewarding album than its reputation suggests, especially for those with a soft spot for melodic 1980s pop. Approach it as a Jeff Lynne synth-pop record rather than a symphonic ELO statement, and there’s plenty to enjoy, from the hit ‘Calling America’ to the album’s more downcast moments. Come for Lynne’s enduring melodic gift, and hear the sound of a great band quietly bowing out at the close of an era.

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