Quoted from beelzeboob:That's because of the genius of Jeff Lynne.
Interestingly enough, I was a huge ELO and TP fan growing up. Actually had all the US ELO albums through Time and then the first 5 TP albums which in my book were all masterpieces. Then when he collaborated with Dave Stewart and released Southern Accents I was really kind of turned off. Then when he started writing with Jeff Lynne it just didn't work for me; and I was really jacked about the joining of the two since I was an ELO fan. From Southern Accents on, his music and sound kind of changed from what I cut my teeth on and I never bought a TP album after that. Still a huge fan though as his early work was a soundtrack to my youth. Huge, huge loss of a one of a kind American icon. Still numb after a couple of days.