Barry Holsinger

ELO is back with another studio album, this time with Jeff Lynne writing, producing, singing, and playing every instrument (except for one track that features keyboards by veteran ELOer Richard Tandy). As you might expect, the record sounds more like a Jeff Lynne solo album than the lush, string-filled 70's releases most people are familiar with. Many Lynne fans cannot find fault with anything he does and so they say this is just as good as ELO ever was. I disagree. From Out Of Nowhere is a stylistic clone of the previous release, Alone In The Universe, with a heavy dollop of Zoom (the 2001 release that almost re-launched ELO onto the world stage until 9/11 squashed Lynne's tour plans). You won't find much that sounds like A New World Record, Out Of The Blue, or Face The Music. But that's okay! Listening to the record by itself -- forgetting whatever has come before -- you will realize it is a fine collection encompassing pop, retro-50's rock, 60's folk, and 70's (non-progressive) rock n roll.