As he approaches his milestone 50th year at the vanguard of Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne has eschewed experimentation for contentment. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that; there's a reason why music's primary purveyor of prog-pop has stuck around for almost half a century.
His 14th studio album may offer nothing particularly new, but these songs are so enjoyable and well-constructed that it doesn’t really matter. Playing almost every instrument himself, Lynne nods to ghosts of the past on several of these songs.
The title track hints at his days with The Traveling Wilburies; the misty melancholia of Losing You invokes The Beatles, while the spry rock'n'roll of One More Time has echoes of that band's Back in the USSR.
That said, Lynne's fingerprints are all over these melody-infused songs, with Help Yourself and the dinky little rhythm of All My Love classic ELO in many respects. Time of Our Life references their 2017 gig at Wembley Stadium; "Sixty thousand rocking out... And best of all, they seemed so happy just being there."
By the sounds of it, he’s still having fun, too.
