Jl's Next Album

[babyzoomer]

Attachment Deleted

[Helmut83]

Aug 18, 2017 22:12:31 GMT Ade said:

Aug 18, 2017 22:04:32 GMT Helmut83 said:

Ade : I take that by "producing" you mean writing songs, is that right? Or are you referring specifically to the production work?

Both.

Well, if it's about production I agree, I think the abilities needed for producing don't have as much to do with creativity but are something that can be learnt and trained. Normally, the more you produce, the better you will be at it.
 
However, songwriting is a very different art which I think too often gets too closely linked with production, almost as if the two were the same thing. That's wrong. They are two completely different things. When you write a song you start from zero, you've got nothing in front of you, no raw material to work with, so you inevitably need creativity. And creativity, as opposed to know-how, doesn't come with experience. Again, I'm totally sure that above your 40s you just lose creativity as you grow older. Just look at all of the greatest songwriters, look the age they were when they wrote their best songs. It isn't by chance but because there's an age range at which the creativity peaks and then it gradually goes down.

So, summing up, I think Jeff Lynne can still be a great producer but not a great songwriter anymore.

[pelo]

Aug 19, 2017 1:56:21 GMT Helmut83 said:

Aug 18, 2017 22:12:31 GMT Ade said:

Both.

Well, if it's about production I agree, I think the abilities needed for producing don't have as much to do with creativity but are something that can be learnt and trained. Normally, the more you produce, the better you will be at it.
 
However, songwriting is a very different art which I think too often gets too closely linked with production, almost as if the two were the same thing. That's wrong. They are two completely different things. When you write a song you start from zero, you've got nothing in front of you, no raw material to work with, so you inevitably need creativity. And creativity, as opposed to know-how, doesn't come with experience. Again, I'm totally sure that above your 40s you just lose creativity as you grow older. Just look at all of the greatest songwriters, look the age they were when they wrote their best songs. It isn't by chance but because there's an age range at which the creativity peaks and then it gradually goes down.

So, summing up, I think Jeff Lynne can still be a great producer but not a great songwriter anymore.

I beg to differ. In my opinion, "Alone In The Universe" is an outstanding ambitious album awash in brilliant tunes. Some people call it boring daddyrock. Well, it wasn't supposed to be a rock album. Listen to the lyrics of the first song, and you will understand the concept of this record:

Soon as I was in my bed, music played inside my head
When I was a boy, I had a dream
When I was a boy, I learned to play far into the night and drift away
...
And radio waves kept me company

To some extent, the album can be considered a nostalgic journey through Jeff's musical career, with the songwriting based on the classic early 60ies approach Jeff "studied" with his "Long Wave" project. That's why you get short concise pop songs with interesting chord changes he learnt from the old masters. Although the album could have been a little longer (and personally, I would have preferred intros and transitions), the album length is part of this nostalgic concept. Jeff dreaming about those days when he was a boy and would listen to pop albums: just ten songs, 30 minutes, no excessses, I think that was the model. Soundwise, however, Jeff picked up on where ELO left off in the Eighties. Thus, you can hear all the typical spacey sounds and keyboards (I believe they play a considerable role on this record) of that era, filtered through his later more organic production method, and avoiding too many gimmicks, though: ELO minus the excesses.

Secondly, I would like to point out that there is a unifying lyrical concept, which is the idea of being alone in the universe. All the songs are about sadness and loneliness, and trying to overcome these feelings to some extent.

Quotes:

I did intend it to be like a unified piece of work [Caroline Martin]

But this record, Alone In The Universe, is about exactly that: being the loneliest thing in the universe. The songs on this album are all about loneliness and stuff like that. And I got it, really, by thinking back to my favourites when I was a kid. […]So I tried to do one with a twist on this album. 'I'm Leaving You', that is. Cos she says she's leaving him, all the way through, then he says 'Ah, actually, got some news for you, mate.' That type of thing. But I do love lonely songs. Love 'em.(Quietus)

[Helmut83]

Aug 19, 2017 12:19:29 GMT pelo said:

I beg to differ. In my opinion, "Alone In The Universe" is an outstanding ambitious album awash in brilliant tunes. Some people call it boring daddyrock. Well, it wasn't supposed to be a rock album. Listen to the lyrics of the first song, and you will understand the concept of this record:

Soon as I was in my bed, music played inside my head
When I was a boy, I had a dream
When I was a boy, I learned to play far into the night and drift away
...
And radio waves kept me company

The thing in my particular case is that lyrics usually have little or no effect in me, or in the best of cases they are accesory. For me music is basically all about the melody, the chords and the instrumentation, that's why a song which's musical part doesn't get me will never do it through it's lyrics, no matter how great they are.

About the interesting chord changes some songs from AITU have, yes, it's true, but hardly anything he hasn't tried before. Besides, it's not only about putting together unusual chords sequences; the great challenge is building a melody over those sequences which sounds fluent, convincing and effective. That's what to these ears Jeff hasn't achieved in AITU.

But, again, it's all subject to opinion. You may like it, I may not.

[jackpunch]

Aug 19, 2017 17:10:21 GMT Helmut83 said:

Aug 19, 2017 12:19:29 GMT pelo said:

I beg to differ. In my opinion, "Alone In The Universe" is an outstanding ambitious album awash in brilliant tunes. Some people call it boring daddyrock. Well, it wasn't supposed to be a rock album. Listen to the lyrics of the first song, and you will understand the concept of this record:

Soon as I was in my bed, music played inside my head
When I was a boy, I had a dream
When I was a boy, I learned to play far into the night and drift away
...
And radio waves kept me company

The thing in my particular case is that lyrics usually have little or no effect in me, or in the best of cases they are accesory. For me music is basically all about the melody, the chords and the instrumentation, that's why a song which's musical part doesn't get me will never do it through it's lyrics, no matter how great they are.

About the interesting chord changes some songs from AITU have, yes, it's true, but hardly anything he hasn't tried before. Besides, it's not only about putting together unusual chords sequences; the great challenge is building a melody over those sequences which sounds fluent, convincing and effective. That's what to these ears Jeff hasn't achieved in AITU.

But, again, it's all subject to opinion. You may like it, I may not.

Absolutely correct in my view. We've agreed on this previously but melody and harmony is whats important for me.

I suspect we might get MBS and LW volumes 2, Live at Wembley DVD, some sort of flushing of whatever is in the archives, a bit of an American tour and a thanks and good night.

Is he going to better what he's already written/recorded to date...nope. Is he going to better a gig at Wembley....nope.

But whatever he does we'll have had some quite incredible music to enjoy.

I was listening to ELO2, OTTD and FTM tonight. Now if he could take some of those early songs pull together a band and orchestra and re record a few of them. I'd happily take an album with Kuiama, Laredo, Bluebird is dead, King of the Universe, Mister Kingdom.

[pelo]

That wasn't exactly my point. Someone wrote about "Alone In The Universe" that he thought it was nothing special, but quite good music to accompany driving a car. And I was like "you just don't get it!" This is not supposed to be driving music. This album was created to evoke the atmosphere of Jeff Lynne's teenage days when he would lie in his bed and listen to music (Long Wave project). It's this kind of dreamy atmosphere that Jeff was aiming for. Thus, I don't understand comments along the lines of "Why are there no proper rockers?". The basic idea here is "drift away" and not "get up" (that would be Bryan Adams!).

In my opinion there are some incredible new songs on AITU, my favourite being When The Night Comes. Maybe, you just don't get it as I get it because to me backing tracks are really important, and there is something magical going on here. Listen with headphones. A real cosmic melodrama, if ever there was one.