Secret Messages

Secret Messages is the tenth studio album by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), released in 1983 on Jet Records. It was the last ELO album with bass guitarist Kelly Groucutt, conductor Louis Clark and real stringed instruments, and the last ELO album to be released on the Jet label. It was also the final ELO studio album to become a worldwide top 40 hit upon release. It was originally intended as the band's final studio album, but contractual terms prevented this from being the case, resulting in the band releasing Balance of Power in 1986.

Original concept
Secret Messages, as its title suggests, is littered with hidden messages in the form of backmasking, some obvious and others less so. This was Jeff Lynne's second tongue-in-cheek response to allegations of hidden Satanic messages in earlier Electric Light Orchestra LPs by Christian fundamentalists, which led up to American congressional hearings in the early 1980s (a similar response had been made by Lynne on the Face the Music album, during the intro to the "Fire on High" track).

Louis Clark returned to conduct the strings once more and the violinist Mik Kaminski appeared on an ELO recording for the first time since Out of the Blue in 1977, playing a violin solo on the track "Rock 'n' Roll Is King". On completion of this album, Lynne dismissed bass guitarist Groucutt after he sued for alleged lost royalties and later received a settlement out of court.

Artwork
The cover was designed by David Costa created by the photographer Hag and hand tinted by Kim Harris. It was the original from which Hag created "The Future's a Bit Fishy. We've Got a Hand in It."

In Britain, the back cover of Secret Messages has the mock notice "Warning: Contains Secret Backward Messages". Word of the album's impending release in the United States caused enough of a furore to cause CBS Records to delete the cover blurb there.

The back cover of the record jacket (made to look like the back of a picture frame) also contains "Secret Messages" in the form of three aged and weathered stickers. One is the track listing and the other two contain mock names of the retailer and manufacturer of the frame. These names are anagrams of the 4 band members: T.D. Ryan (R. Tandy), F.Y.J. Fennel (Jeff Lynne), G.U. Ruttock (K. Groucutt) and E.V. Nabbe (Bev Bevan). The record sleeve also contains a "Secret Message". The front and back has a string of dots and dashes that is actually Morse Code and repeats "E L O": E (one dot), L (dot dash dot dot) and O (dash dash dash).

Release
Three singles were released from the album in the UK: "Rock 'n' Roll Is King", the title track and "Four Little Diamonds". In the US, "Rock 'n' Roll Is King", "Four Little Diamonds" and "Stranger" were issued. "Rock 'n' Roll Is King" became the band's last UK Top 20 hit. The song "Letter from Spain" was used as backing music for the bid promo video for Barcelona's 1992 Summer Olympics bid, which instead were held in Paris.

Secret Messages was the first Electric Light Orchestra album released on compact disc, with the catalogue number "CD JET402". It was reissued in 1986 on compact cassette, and in 1996 on digital compact cassette and MiniDisc. It was remastered and reissued in 2002 on EMI Columbia Music's Masterworks label in conjunction with Jet Records.

Track listing
All songs written by Jeff Lynne; strings conducted by Louis Clark.

ELO

 * Jeff Lynne – lead and backing vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, synthesizer, bass guitar, piano, percussion, Oberheim DMX, producer
 * Bev Bevan – drums, percussion
 * Richard Tandy – synthesizer, grand piano, electric piano, harmonica, Oberheim DMX
 * Kelly Groucutt – bass guitar, backing vocals, double bass ("Train of Gold", "Rock 'n' Roll Is King", "No Way Out" and "Beatles Forever")

Additional personnel

 * Mik Kaminski – violin ("Rock 'n' Roll Is King")
 * Dave Morgan – additional backing vocals
 * Bill Bottrell – Engineer
 * Strings conducted by Louis Clark ("Train Of Gold", "Danger Ahead", "Stranger", "Buildings Have Eyes", "Time After Time" and "Hello My Old Friend")