Alone in the Universe (2015)


 
  
  1. When I Was A Boy
  2. Love and Rain
  3. Dirty to the Bone
  4. When the Night Comes
  5. The Sun Will Shine On You
  6. Ain't it a Drag
  7. All My Life
  8. I'm Leaving You
  9. One Step at a Time
 10. Alone in the Universe
 11. Fault Line *
 12. Blue *

* Bonus Track

 

In the last decade or so, the lush, high-gloss production aesthetic of the 1970s and 80s — once unceremoniously buried beneath the grunge-washed minimalism of the 1990s — began to stage a quiet, if unexpected, comeback. Bands like The Killers, Muse, and Coldplay flirted openly with the very sonic excess their predecessors had rejected. So when Jeff Lynne dusted off the ELO moniker once again, the timing, at long last, was on his side.

Of course, this wasn’t Lynne’s first attempt to revive the brand. In 2001, Zoom tried to rekindle the spark, but despite some solid songwriting, it felt more like a Jeff Lynne solo album with borrowed initials. The public was largely uninterested, and a proposed tour — complete with a new spaceship stage set — was unceremoniously scrapped due to sluggish ticket sales. This time, however, the reception was notably warmer. Nostalgia was in vogue, and so was the sound of a bygone era.

Alone in the Universe, released under the banner Jeff Lynne’s ELO, is a fitting re-entry into orbit. From the moment it begins, it feels engineered to transport listeners back to 1977 — back when spaceships were dazzling, hair was feathered, and Star Wars was still a cultural revelation. The album leans heavily into the signature ELO style: dreamy mid-tempo ballads, punchy rockers, and the occasional glimmer of disco gloss. It is, in many ways, a carefully assembled homage to Lynne’s own past.

Yet, for all its charm, there is something missing — and that something, ironically, is the “orchestra.” Where once strings swooped in to elevate even the hardest rockers (see: Turn to Stone), here they are largely absent, or, at best, subtly implied. The arrangements are tastefully done, but the grandeur — the symphonic ambition that defined ELO’s golden age — has been quietly set aside. Perhaps, at this stage in life, Lynne simply isn’t inclined to wrangle with cellos and concertmasters.

Vocally and melodically, however, Lynne remains remarkably consistent. His voice has aged little, and his knack for melody — that uncanny, Beatles-drenched sensibility — remains intact. Tracks like The Sun Will Shine On You, When I Was a Boy, and One Step at a Time stand comfortably alongside his earlier work, if perhaps in more modest attire.

As for the group’s identity, Alone in the Universe makes no pretense: this is Jeff Lynne, full stop. The band’s name now carries the qualifying possessive — Jeff Lynne’s ELO — a not-so-subtle distancing from the “Part II” offshoots of the 1990s that continued without him. Lynne handles nearly everything on this record himself, and even remarks on it in the liner notes. If ELO was ever a group in the traditional sense, it hasn’t been for decades. But no matter. The illusion was always secondary to the sound.

In the end, Alone in the Universe is a grand return and a warm reminder. It does not attempt to reinvent, only to recall. And in that respect, it succeeds beautifully. If this truly marks the final chapter in ELO’s story — and with Lynne at the helm, one never quite knows — it is a graceful and heartfelt coda. One hopes there is still more to come.

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