It took fourteen years but singer song writer, producer extraordinaire, Jeff Lynne, has finally released a new Electric Light Orchestra album: ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE. In case you were wondering, the band’s name change to, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, was done in order to avoid confusion and legal hassles stemming from former band mate, Bev Bevan who toured under the ELO, Part II banner.

ELO ruled the charts with 19 top 40 singles and multiple platinum albums during their reign between 1971 to 1979. The band’s claim to fame was their successful infusion of classical music into Beatlesque/ progressive pop-rock. Ultimately, in 1986 after the release of Balance of Power they broke up.

After a twenty eight year hiatus from the road, ELO was asked to play at London’s famous Hyde Park. The reception from fans re-invigorated Lynne and spurred him on to make another ELO album thus resulting in - Jeff Lynne’s ELO: Alone in the Universe.

On to the review… there is no denying this album sounds like ELO. What impresses me however, is how Lynne is credited as playing most of the instruments and writing all the songs on the album. You can see how he took his experience as a master producer and singer song writer to make this album heartfelt and warm without all the studio wizardry that were present on past ELO albums.

I highly recommend Jeff Lynne’s ELO: Alone in the Universe. It’s a worthy addition to your ELO collection because it was created by a master craftsman at the top of his game.