Zoom

 

    ELO's grand return to form, or at least it supposedly is. 15 years after the band's 'final' studio album, 2001's Zoom is... odd. I have some mixed feelings on this one. As I hinted, this album isn't quite the ELO from the 70s and 80s, now with Jeff Lynne being the sole member of the band and featuring various artists on certain tracks; notably George Harrison and Ringo Starr of Beatles fame, and Richard Tandy as the only other returning ELO alumni (and sadly for only 1 song). With this major shift in status quo brings with it a major shift in sound. As you could probably have guessed, Zoom is a big deviation from the band's past works. The album seems much more centered around a more straightforward plain 'rock' sound. It's a bit of a shame compared to how unique and varied other entries in ELO's discography have been, only for their comeback to be as watered down and generic as it is. It's not necessarily bad (Lynne is a very good musician and had great help as previously shown) but it's not that special and a downgrade from even their last album, Balance of Power, which at least stuck to it's 80s shtick (my knowledge of late 90s and early 2000s rock is a bit lacking so I can't comment on how it is in relation to other things around that time). Along with this, the music is beginning to show some more of the acoustic sound that the band's next couple albums will go in much more heavily on. It does have it's moments of signature ELO flair though, with the occasional orchestral instruments, unique synth usage, and oddball effects to give some tracks unique personality that does at least help some of the album sound a little more 'ELO". In addition, some of the songs stray from the overall vanilla rock feel to tackle some more genres, namely Easy Money as a great blues-rock song. Minor features like these help keep the album from being a complete run of the mill rock work, just enough for me to rank it favorably, but know that it's not by much and is a very close call between a 3 and 4. Zoom's not bad, but it's not too good either.

    Highlights: Moment in Paradise, State of Mind, Just for Love, Easy Money.

Rating: 3/6

Addendum: Something I said in the review was just downright incorrect and I've removed it. It's nothing too major and was just a factual inaccuracy about one of the songs but I wanted to remove it so the review would more accurately represent the album. Additionally, my opinion of the album has fallen since the initial writing of this review. Too many of the songs sound very similar, to the point where I have trouble distinguishing between them in my head. I think it's a bad thing when your album has a stretch of 4 songs that all sound nearly identical except for the words in the chorus. The rating has been changed from a 4 to a 3.