When Jeff Lynne was growing up, he listened to music on longwave radio, soaking up all the sounds coming through the big radio in the living room. His 2012 tribute to these days, appropriately called Long Wave, is a far-reaching salute to the glory days of pop in the years before the Beatles. It's too easy to peg this as a standards album, a designation that isn't quite accurate. Lynne may cover many show tunes along with '50s favorites of big-band vocalists but he spends nearly as much time wit...
When Jeff Lynne was growing up, he listened to music on longwave radio, soaking up all the sounds coming through the big radio in the living room. His 2012 tribute to these days, appropriately called Long Wave, is a far-reaching salute to the glory days of pop in the years before the Beatles. It's too easy to peg this as a standards album, a designation that isn't quite accurate. Lynne may cover many show tunes along with '50s favorites of big-band vocalists but he spends nearly as much time with rock & roll, and not just the operatic pop of his fellow Traveling Wilbury Roy Orbison, either. He cranks through Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock," slides into the silken harmonies of the Everly Brothers on "So Sad," and grooves through Don Covay's "Mercy, Mercy." These are the cuts that stick the closest to the original hit recordings. When Lynne tackles Rodgers & Hammerstein ("If I Loved You"), Rodgers & Hart ("Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"), Fain & Webster ("Love Is a Many Splendored Thing"), and Chaplin ("Smile"), he breaks the song down to its melodic basics then builds up candied, layered arrangements that are distinctly his own, suggesting the gorgeous cascades of sound that were the signature of prime ELO. Indeed, when these sweet reinterpretations are combined with the straight-ahead rockers, Long Wave adds up to a blueprint in reverse for Lynne; by going to back to his beginnings, he winds up figuring out why he went in the direction he did.
(User's Opinion below:)
Jeff Lynne returned in october 2012, with a masterpiece of an album.Jeff done everything himself on this album and is a stunning album.Every track is of old standards of the 50s and 60s.There is not a dud track on the album and i think will eventually be a massive seller.The musicianship,vocals,production and output of this album is incredible.This album will reinvent jeffs career as it has been a while anyone has heard about him, but actually he is so involved as a producer of other artists, he has never been away, just not in the public's eye all the time.This is a reminder how talented JEFF LYNNE is,this album will be around for years and according to Jeff himself, he is going to concentrate on himself for a while, instead of helping other artists.LONG WAVE is a great comeback start. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
