Album review: ELO – Zoom

April 20th, 2013 by jason

Frontiers www.frontiers.it

Frontiers are making the most of their tie up with Jeff Lynne with re-mastered versions of ELO’s “Zoom” and Lynne’s solo “Armchair Theatre” following hot on the heals of the re-recorded “Best Of..” and solo “Long Wave”. “Zoom” was originally released back in 2001 (I remember buying it in Hong Kong!) but has been out of print for many years.

“Zoom” is effectively a Jeff Lynne solo album in all but name with long time keyboard player Richard Tandy only appearing on the original single “Alright” and drummer Bev Bevan not getting a look in at all!! Jeff did have Ringo Starr and George Harrison guesting though.

“Zoom” has less of an electronic feel than previous release “Balance of Power” (released way back in 1986) with live cello being supplied on several tracks together with female backing vocals courtesy of Rosie Vela.

The quality of all the songs is high veering between classic ELO rock’n’roll numbers, classic ELO ballads and Lynne’s “Beatles-ish” harmony vocal numbers. Best tunes are opener “Alright”, “State of Mind”, “Just For Love” and “Lonesome Luulaby”.

This re-release has two bonus tracks – “One Day” which sounds like a typical Jeff Lynne solo number and a life version of “Turn to Stone” which I’m sure I remember seeing on a TV show from years ago as it features Rosie Vela on backing vocals. The question has to asked though as to what happened to “Long Black Road” from the original Japanese release and “Lucky Motel” from the Japanese re-issue? Come on Frontiers!!

Frontiers have also tweaked the artwork as well – they’ve rotated and darkened the spaceship and changed the font…think I prefer the original though.

Enjoyable re-release…but if you already own the original is there enough incentive to buy this…maybe not!

***1/2

Jason Ritchie

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