Lynne, Jeff / ELO - Alone In The Universe CD (Mega Blowout Sale)
SKU
23-Sony 888751451124
“It has been 14 years since 2001's Zoom - a highly anticipated and hotly debated comeback album for The Electric Light Orchestra with Jeff Lynne at the helm and only a handful of other musicians involved in the music making. It was quite the departure from any previous album released under the ELO name, thus many argued it was really a Jeff Lynne solo effort, yet at the same time it embraced many of the production and arrangement elements we have come to expect in an ELO album. There’s been some back and forth regarding this latest venture, released under the name Jeff Lynne's ELO, and while I always considered Zoom a proper ELO release because a: Jeff Lynne said it was and, more importantly, b: it contained many of the characteristics you’d expect from ELO, this latest DOES sound and feel more like an ELO album from the past.
Alone in the Universe is even more of a one-man band effort than Zoom with Jeff playing and singing everything except for some random percussion (engineer Steve Jay) and backing vocals (provided by Lynne's daughter, Laura). Yet through the 10 album tracks similarities to ELO's back catalog keep popping up, whether it is the use of Lynne's falsetto vocals on a chorus (think Discovery and Xanadu era), the funky guitar riff on Love and Rain (Showdown from On the Third Day ), or the syncopated rhythm and bass of When the Night Comes, a track which sounds like it could have been lifted right off of 1986's excellent and overlooked Balance of Power. Then there are the ballads: When I Was Boy, All My Life, the stunning The Sun Will Shine On You, the Orbison inspired I’m Leaving You, and the closing title track, Alone in the Universe – all have the beautiful melodies you’d expect from a '70s era ELO ballad yet with more introspective lyrics than Lynne generally provided back in the day.
There are several upbeat numbers as well that are also steeped in Lynne's ELO-style production and arrangements. Ain't It a Drag finds Lynne channeling Tom Petty's vocal style in several places while One Step at a Time has a chorus that comes rather close to the pop of Discovery.
Throughout the album Lynne delivers his signature infectious melodies, chord changes, and flawless production and arrangements with more than enough ELO-ish moments to please most ELO fans. I say most because there are some, I am sure, who will complain about the lack of strings and while that bothered me on Lynne's re-recordings of ELO's hits on Mr Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra (comparisons with the originals were inevitable) here Lynne sprinkles keyboard string effects throughout which work because they provide nice touches that support the music even if not playing the larger role that they did in ELO's peak years (1974 - 1980).”-John O’Neill