Jeff Lynne – Live from The Bungalow Palace Review

An overlap between Acoustic and Live from The Bungalow Palace can be found here. Drop a few of those earlier cuttings and piece in a talking head interview with Tom Petty, and you have all the difference you need. Live from The Bungalow Palace is well worth a listen, especially for those who can appreciate a stripped-back sound with the footage of how these performances come together. Jeff Lynne and Richard Tandy, in the Electric Light Orchestra frontman’s living room, performing with extraordinary strength. Considering the decade that had passed since Zoom, it is somewhat of a surprise to hear how strong Lynne and Tandy sound. They had worked together for decades, and part of that chemistry is never to be lost, but it still maintains a welcome surprise. Cut between these great performances is Lynne explaining why he has a quieter public presence than other musicians. His willingness to let the music talk for itself is clear here.  

Live from The Bungalow Palace is as intimate a performance as you may ever get from Lynne. He disliked the stage, the press circuit, and yet participated anyway when it was necessary. His aversion to it otherwise is beyond respectable and is part of the charm of ELO. They were never an inevitability, yet their music lasts, electrified or acoustic. This is what Live from The Bungalow Palace showcases. Lynne and Tandy have some exceptional chemistry on opening song Evil Woman, and the cut of Showdown, not quite the full song, but enough to hear the brilliance. Take a step outdoors for a rare selection from Armchair Theatre, and the snippets become frustrating. We are given a tease of what is a mesmerising performance from a musical great. Not the great. But one of them. His solo work is not given as much attention as it deserves, but here is a nice cut of Save Me Now.  

More than anything, Live from The Bungalow Palace is an experience with Lynne as a producer first, performer second. Even when he’s working with Tandy or piecing together covers of his deep cuts in his garden, that ear for which instrument needs more purpose is there. He lets Tandy take over for the Evil Woman cut brilliantly, while his acoustic guitar work is borderline inaudible on Telephone Line. It’s a chance to get a new version of the song out there, and a wonderful one at that. Crucial to that is how Lynne’s vocal work has held up in the years after ELO disbanded for the first time. Softer versions of Can’t Get It Out of My Head and Telephone Line are nothing short of delightful here. It may be frustrating to hear the versions picked apart, but at least we can listen to most of each song.  

What will delight dedicated fans is hearing how consistent Lynne’s voice has been after all these years. Dependable as ever and very strong indeed. That’s the main purpose of listening to this set. You will struggle to find similar acoustic versions from Lynne elsewhere. A few notes from the production team are interesting bits to hear because it has Lynne playing around with the form of his own songs, or at least suggesting he would “mess up” on purpose. This is the invitation into an intimate experience, one which cannot be given during the sleek stage expectations. It is why the smaller venue can suit an artist, and though Hyde Park never came to be, Live from the Bungalow Place is a solid enough experience to make up for such a headline show loss.