Eloy: Power and the Passion (1975)

Power and the Passion, Eloy’s fourth album, was the album where the band wanted to move away from the guitar and Hammond organ format and to a more spacy, synthesizer dominated sound. It was also their first concept album, this album was about a teenaged boy named Jamie who accidentally swallowed some time eroding drugs that his father made and ended up in the year 1358 where he meets a girl named Jeanne. He turns the girl on to some drugs (apparently marijuana). As it turns out, Jeanne lives in an era where the peasants are being treated like shit and eventually Jamie gets imprisoned. He then escapes and fines a zany magician who helps him return back to the 20th century. The album seems to suggest that where lots of progress has been made in the area of technology over those 600 years, very little progress has been made socially in that time span (we still have wars, and we have right wing organizations like the Christian Coalition who wish to force their lifestlye on everyone else). Anyway, what I learned was Power and the Passion was meant to be a double album, but their producer Jay Partridge (who was apparently a real asshole) prevented it. Also musically, the album isn’t nearly as good as Inside or Floating, but it’s not nearly as bad as some say it is. The album could have used better production, but the reason for that, sadly, was Partridge. The album also showed the the band wanted to use newer synthesizer technology to give it that new spacy sound the band didn’t have on previous albums. Keyboardist Manfred Wieczorke added a few new toys with his Hammond organ. A Mini Moog (which he had since Floating), a string synth, a Hohner clavinet, and apparently Mellotron (almost states he uses one but I don’t notice it). The album starts off with “Introduction” which was basically Wieczorke and his Hammond organ. The next cut, “Journey into 1358” shows the band’s new sound: spacy string synth with a rather moody atmospheric backdrop. The next cut, “Love Over Six Centuries” starts off mellow, but as the song progresses, you hear spoken male and female dialog (that is Jamie and Jeanne), including the part where Jamie turns Jeanne on to drugs. The spacy synths are again ever present. “Mutiny” is much the same, except without spoken dialog and largely instrumental. “Imprisonment” is another very moody and atmospheric piece that reminds me a bit of Le Orme’s Felona e Sorona or Pulsar’s Halloween. “Daybreak” harkens back to the band’s older sound: heavy on the guitar and Ian Anderson-like vocals. “The Zany Magician” is the closest to heavy metal on this album, featuring some really insane semi-spoken dialog that, of course, is the voice of the zany magician. “Back in to the Present” reminds me of Kansas circa Song For America but without the violin. The last song, “The Bells of Notre Dame” involves Jamie reflecting on his journeys to the past and feeling a bit disillusioned with the present day. The song tends to be on the mellow side. While this album isn’t the best in the Eloy catalog, it isn’t all that bad. This version of Eloy broke up because they couldn’t stand Jay Partridge any more. But because the album was enjoying moderate success in Germany, the record company gave Frank Bornemann (Eloy’s leader, lead guitarist, and vocalist) a second chance and he resurrected Eloy with some new members. Power and the Passion is basically the sound Eloy would perfect with their new linup and their following albums, Dawn (1976), and especially Ocean (1977) and Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes (1979). If you’re a fan of Eloy’s heavily synthesized space rock sound of the late ’70s, you owe it to yourself to get Power and the Passion, as that was their first album in that style.
– Frank Bornemann: lead guitar, vocals
– Detlef Schwaar: rhythm guitar
– Luitjen Janssen: bass
– Manfred Wieczorke: organ, piano, Mini Moog synthesizer, clavinet, string synth, Mellotron
– Fritz Randow: drums