![]() ![]() That's another often-overlooked aspect of pop production: knowing when to disappear. Most of these songs last between three and four minutes Lynne stops at the exact moment when another iteration of the chorus would turn a blissful moment tedious. In the realm of Alone In The Universe, 16 measures is a long time. The brief instrumental rejoinders of "Love And Rain" tease out and then deepen the blues implications embedded in the vocal theme, while his short 16-measure excursion in "One Step At A Time" offers a complete master class on how to use neon-hot guitar tone rather than technique to create a captivating solo. But both his rhythm textures and his leads here are stunning. He's not a hotshot, and perhaps as a result has never been fully appreciated for his guitar work. Lynne's sense of aptness is perhaps most evident in the guitar breaks. (Another song here, "I'm Leaving You," pays homage to the late Wilbury Roy Orbison.) Even a pure pop confection like "Dirty To The Bone," this year's model of "Evil Woman," exhibits an earthiness that recalls Lynne's contributions to the short-lived supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. That's probably because the songs he's written are themselves less flashy. Though there are still plenty of thick string parts and intricate, wonderfully tense vocal-harmony arrays, it sounds like he's aiming for a markedly less flashy, less glossy sound than that of ELO's mid-'70s hit records. He plays most of the instruments here, and everything is executed with taste and restraint. That's one delight of Alone In The Universe: In track after tightly disciplined track, it shows Lynne doing precisely what's needed to convey the big idea behind the song, and no more. Those raised on rococo ELO wonderments like "Strange Magic" might find it astonishing to hear this vulnerability, and even more astonishing to realize that it's essential to the song. But the tone is new: Lynne recognizes that to sell these personal reflections, he has to share some humanity, and he sings with weary, rumpled imperfection. In terms of craft, "When I Was A Boy" is a classic Jeff Lynne construction: It's got a refrain that sounds both immediately grabby and eternal, and it's built on a majestic chord sequence that tips its hat to The Beatles, long the guiding star in Lynne's galaxy. Like much of Alone In The Universe, this song is the rousing, strong, surefooted work of a master who somehow remains in command of the kinetic pop hook - and everything that surrounds it. Predictable in its nostalgia, the tune looks back at Lynne's modest beginnings in Birmingham, England, and uses earnest language to celebrate music as a redemptive, life-changing force.īut here's the plot twist: It's not your typical muttering about long-gone glory days. True to aging-rocker form, he begins the first new ELO album (this reboot is actually credited to "Jeff Lynne's ELO") in nearly 15 years with a stately processional called "When I Was A Boy," in which he confesses that "Radio waves kept me company" and recalls that growing up, the only thing he wanted to do was make music. He's been away for a while, working as a producer and doing small solo projects since ELO initially disbanded in 1986. Jeff Lynne, the 67-year-old singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer known for the lush production pop of Electric Light Orchestra, is next in line. So it's reasonable to be cynical when a figure from rock's back pages announces a return to active duty. They complain, in interviews, about the myriad ways the music business has changed. They churn out blustery memoirs in which they seem to settle old scores but wind up saying little. They collaborate with current hitmakers to put themselves in front of new generations of listeners. They write melancholy songs that express longing for the simpler days when they were ignored and unknown. We've all watched once-beloved icons fall prey to a familiar (and eerily similar) series of judgment lapses: They spend their time repackaging the old hits - or, more distressingly, re-recording them. Someday, someone's going to make a mint dispensing practical advice to rock stars heading into retirement age.
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