Electric Light Orchestra
Zoom

The orchestra of electric light is quite active these days with a best of album last year and now a rerelease of the 2001 album Zoom and also a live album is being released around the same time. This album was as I alluded to released in 2001 and has been unavailable for a while now, according to Frontiers it has been over ten years so perhaps a rerelease is in place. Just to add some value to this album they have also added a pair of tracks, one studio recording and one live recording from 2001 ends this album. The cover is about the same as it was in 2001 and the question you have to think of is wether or not it is worth it for those who already have the album and for those who missed it.

For me ELO is a band I grew up with, their earliest work was a feature when I was young so I know and like this band quite a bit. I have, however missed what they have done lately which appears to be not very much and Zoom is one of their albums I have not heard yet so for me it is a new album. Considering what the band has done before, it is with a bit of expectations I take on this album so lets see what this old musical friend of mine has to offer me and all of the other music fans out there.

I think anyone knowing this band from earlier will recognise the music which is rock music infused with string and choirs, orchestral things added to classic rock music is what has made this band known before and it is what they still do. The album is quite varied in style and quite dynamic amongst the songs on the album, and as expected the production is top notch. This album has a great quality of sound and all of that stuff, it is a powerful, very strong album without anything to really complain about coming to the production side of things. I think you could say that this album sounds more or less as you would expect a production by ELO to sound and the bonus studio track does not deviate from the overall sound of the album and the live track ends it all in a fairly logical way.

I think that this is an impressive production and the songs are overall good on this album, it is an album showcasing a Jeff Lynne and ELO in good form. It is difficult to find anything to complain about but there are some slight niggles, one of those is the fact that there are songs on this album that feels quite average. Then of course there are some good songs and a pair of quite brilliant songs in Ordinary Dreams and the bonus track One Day, but neither of these is a timeless track and such are something I have almost come to expect from this band as they have several of those from their more active career in the seventies or eighties. I think that the slightly uneven quality of this album makes it feel as though they could have done better, that there is something that isn’t quite there and this despite the fact that it is a very good album.

Anyone who picked up Zoom back when it was released in the first place does not really need to bother with this album, it just does not have enough to offer for anyone who already owns the majority of the album. Anyone who missed it back in those days really ought to take a close look at this album because it is very good and well worth looking closer at. Nothing earth shattering and to my memory it is not as good as the stuff from the band’s earlier career, it is a solid album though and as I alluded to it is well worth taking a closer look at if you haven’t already. Maybe not the most necessary of releases out there and perhaps not the best use of my time as a reviewer but it is still a good album even if it feels a bit like a disappointment as I know that ELO can do better than this.

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