57. Jeff Lynne's ELO--Alone In the Universe

 #57. Jeff Lynne's ELO--Alone In the Universe (2015)

Top-Notch Tracks: "When I Was a Boy," "All My Life," "Alone In the Universe," "The Sun Will Shine On You."

Album Depth: "One Step At a Time," "Ain't It a Drag," "When the Night Comes."

Weak Links: "Love and Rain," "Dirty to the Bone," "I'm Leaving You."

Stand-Out Lyrics: "When I was a boy I had a dream, all about the things I'd like to be."--"When I Was a Boy"

"And radio waves kept me company, in those beautiful days when there was no money."--"When I Was a Boy"

"All my life I was looking for you, and suddenly you were there. All my life I knew what I would do--Just stand there like a fool and stare."--"All My Life"

"I'm so glad I found you, just wanna be around you, all my life."--"All My Life"

"You go your way, and I go mine. We'll never meet until the next time."--"Ain't It a Drag"

Jeff Lynne's ELO: Alone In the Universe

Album Cover: 8 out of 10. I'm sorry, but I'll always approve any use of the ELO spaceship. Plus, the lonely pasture in a mountain valley hits me in a personal way, too.

Comments: September 24, 2015 was a pretty eventful day for me. My new washing machine and dryer were delivered to my house. I met my good friend Nardo at the Salt Lake Comic Con, and we spent the day attending writing workshops, going to celebrity panels featuring Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi) and Walter Koenig (Ensign Checkov), wandering the exhibits, and enjoying some people watching. Oh, and I found out my wife was expecting our fourth child. 

It was a pretty big day.

But, the first thing that happened that day was that, after showering in the morning, I did a little browsing on Facebook and discovered that Jeff Lynne and ELO were releasing a brand new song--his first new song in over 14 years. I first listened to "When I Was a Boy" that morning on my phone, and I immediately knew it was going to be one of my favorite songs of all time. It's that good of a song. (It certainly helped my appreciation of the song that I always associate it with the boy I found out later that day was on his way.)

A couple of months later, the album "Alone In the Universe" was released, and it's got four excellent songs on it, a few half-decent songs, and a few clunkers. (Unfortunately, when Jeff Lynne tries for a bluesy sound these days, it's pretty hit and miss.)

The flow of the album suffers a bit because the four best songs are more of the slow ballad variety, and the up-tempo songs aren't very strong. A few years later, Jeff Lynne's ELO came out with another album of new songs, "From Out of Nowhere," and it had the opposite problem: the up-tempo songs ("One More Time," Time of Our Life," "Sci Fi Woman") are great, but the rest of the album is only okay. If the best of the two albums could be combined into one, it would be much, much higher on this list. But, alas, "Alone In the Universe" is at #57, and "From Out of Nowhere" is on the outside looking in.

I'm just glad that Jeff Lynne followed through on making some new music. There's some great stuff here! Creating new music hasn't hurt Jeff Lynne's musical legacy, it has enhanced it. It's a lesson I wish some other aging musicians would take to heart. (Not mentioning any names, but I'm thinking particularly of a guy whose name rhymes with "Silly Bowl.")



Up next: No llama drama here!



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