Electric Light Orchestra

Zoom

ELINO (ELO In Name Only)

Review Score:

(2/10)
I grew up with ELO. Xanadu was the biggest thing going when I was a little kid (and I had a monster crush on Olivia Newton-John that I've never really shaken), and that music was an indelible part of my childhood. Recently, I took a trip to my local Borders and bought their 2-disc greatest hits collection...and by chance, I came across a bunch of reissues of their old albums and a corresponding new album from 2001, Zoom. So at the first chance I got, I went back to the store and bought Zoom, expecting it to be a glorious revival of ELO's classical music-rock sound.

Boy, was I wrong.

When you think of ELO, what comes to mind? Large violin and cello sections, Moog synthesizers, electronic chimes and whooshes, echoing vocals...you know, the stuff that made ELO's music so immediately identifiable. None of that stuff is present on Zoom. There's maybe one or two isolated incidents of a cello or a few violins on the album, tops. Otherwise it's solid retro-Beatles rock. Further, the only member of ELO on this album is founder Jeff Lynne, playing virtually all the instruments and doing all the vocals himself. (ELO's original pianist, Richard Tandy shows up briefly and vanishes soon thereafter.) Aside from a couple guest shots from Ringo Starr and the late George Harrison, Zoom is a one-man show.

Which begs the question: why did Lynne slap the ELO name on it when Tandy, Bev Bevan, Kelly Groucett, Mik Kaminski, Melvyn Gale, and the rest of the group aren't even a part of it? Why didn't Lynne tag the album as what it really is, a solo effort? The songs themselves are pretty good, taken on their own merits...but as ELO songs, they don't cut it. If you're going to use the ELO label, there's an established style you have to work with--rock crossed with classical music. If Lynne wanted to revive ELO, he should have revived the group's signature style while he was at it. Instead he whips up a solo album and slaps the ELO name on it for reasons that only God could figure out. As a Jeff Lynne album, I would have given Zoom top props. But tagging it as an ELO effort when it's anything but is tantamount to Lynne spitting on the legacy that made him a rock legend. If anything, Zoom isn't a revival of ELO at all. It's just an affirmation that ELO is dead and buried.

Sorry, Lynne, but I'll be avoiding any future ELOINO albums and sticking to the classic stuff. I want the real thing, not a cynical cash-in that should have been released as the solo work it really is.

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