Electric Light Orchestra – Time of Our Life Review

A song written about a Wembley Stadium show which, if we are honest with ourselves, wasn’t great. It was a good live album, the second of two in Electric Light Orchestra’s discography, but it did leave a lot to be desired. Not Jeff Lynne, though. The frontman is a lovable individual because he seems to have been unaffected by the scope of fame and all the changes which come with it. What Lynne did on those final two ELO albums is dig deep into his memories and come out the other side with little to show for them. We cannot doubt his experiences or his range, but these light and loose projects where the frontman found interest in influences from his past, are duds. Those songs which reference modern times, most notably on Time of Our Life, struggle to make much difference too. The trouble is not the memory of playing Wembley Stadium, but the vagueness of the experience.  

An all-timer experience which only the biggest bands in the world can manage, and yet Lynne sounds as though the experience has hardly affected him. It means it’s all the stranger to write a song specifically about the time he and the band performed at the stadium. His “London town” writing style sounds a bit trope-ridden, with the forced, jaunty style not landing anywhere on From Out of Nowhere. Here, it becomes a little worse. It has the instrumental vibrancy of ELO at their best, but the song struggles to capture a moment which happened just a few years before its release. A plodding simplicity is what has affected contemporary ELO releases. It’s a problem which would feature more on Alone in the Universe and From Out of Nowhere than anywhere else. Compare it with Last Train to London and the volatility of the trip, the experience itself, is miles behind.  

Not only that but the details Lynne picks out are the obvious ones. Mobile phones in the air, singing to the crowd. It’s all light and nice but it lacks the intimate detail a listener would expect of the man on stage. These are moments which anyone can note. It’s as much a consideration of the gig-goer as the performer, and considering Lynne wrote these songs with a considered lean into his personal experiences, Time of Our Life comes across as a strangely flat and indifferent piece. When you promise to bring about an emotional thrill through the experiences and feelings associated with a performance of a lifetime, it should be relatively easy to convince of the occasion being an emotional high. But plodding instrumentals and a poor mix, as is the case for all of From Out of Nowhere, sink the chances of a charming recollection.  

Lynne could truly believe this performance was the best experience of his life. He doesn’t convince a listener of such a night with this song, but that’s more a problem of the studio and his quieter desires. Writing with such generalities is a frequent part of ELO’s discography. Even their best songs are written with a straightforward stylishness to them. But that’s the difference maker right there, stylishness. Lynne has none of that on Time of Our Life and instead recedes into this humble frontman who couldn’t dare dream of playing to sizeable crowds, as he would so often do. It’s a song where the occasion needs a bit of confidence and cockiness, something Lynne simply cannot offer. A credit to him as a person, but not his work. A very clunky song comes together, but only just.