Jeff Lynne's ELO - From Out of Nowhere

The Guardian 80

(Sony/RCA)
Lynne has come out of semi-retirement with an album of creamy harmonies and good-natured pop, firmly in the lineage of classic ELO

There’s something rather heartwarming about the return of Jeff Lynne’s ELO. While being a semi-retired rock star, forced out of the fray by the passing tides of fashion, is no one’s idea of a hard life, it’s also not what anyone with a yearning to make music for an audience wants for themselves. It all turned round for Lynne in 2014, when Radio 2’s head of music, Jeff Smith, persuaded him to headline the station’s Hyde Park concert. Five years on, the new-look ELO have had a platinum album, played Wembley Stadium and filled multiple arenas.