ejjiii's Full Review: Eldorado [Remaster] by Electric Light Orchestra
The Electric Light Orchestra was formed out of the remains of the Birmingham, England base group The Move. Guitarist/vocalist Roy Wood, leader of The Move, had envisioned The Electric Light Orchestra as a parallel outfit to The Move, but the group(s) lost momentum and The Move fell apart. Jeff Lynne, another Birmingham musician, had joined The Move specifically to make orchestrally back rock music, ala The Beatles classics Strawberry Fields Forever and I Am The Walrus. When The Move disbanded, Lynne fronted the new The Electric Light Orchestra, aka ELO.
After three albums which had increasing success, especially in the U.S., The Electric Light Orchestra had their breakthrough with their fourth album, Eldorado. Eldorado was the first concept album by the group, meant to be a rock symphony. If nothing else, this album put the group on the map.
The first track, Eldorado Overture, had a mystic, Oz-like ethereal feel. High concept, with a serious violin overture, this was ELO at it’s finest. A great opening piece. Which led directly to…
I Can’t Get It Out of My Head. Lynne’s vocals floating above a beautiful orchestral score. One of ELO’s first big single hits. Later, when ELO became a huge pop hit-making machine, they forsook this orchestral – King Arthur – English – rock – pop – classical formula. Too bad. This is what they did best.
Track 3 was a Boy Blue, replete with a trumpet and violin laden intro, which migrated into electric guitar before Lynne’s vocal took over. A tour de force. In many respects, Wood’s and Lynne’s vision of what ELO should be was fully realized on this album in general, and this song in particular, only to be lost in the dollar green pastures of the hit making, latter day ELO.
The next track, Laredo Tornado, is more of a rock song than the rest of the classical/rock mélange that typifies the rest of the album. This song fits better with the latter day giant hit albums A New World Record and Out Of The Blue than this album. But it is not a bad song.
Poorboy (The Greenwood) gets the album back on track with another King Arthur era feel piece. Great 50/50 mix of orchestral and rock elements. While there are several really fine classical musicians in this group, it is Lynne’s vocals that give these really strong pieces the proper feel. This song, at 2:55, could have been longer as it is really an excellent, beautiful piece.
On the vinyl release, way back in 1974, side two (yes, we old timers had to flip the album over!) started with Mister Kingdom. One of the weaker efforts on this record, it suffers only in comparison with the rest of the album. (Old timer note to you young whipper-snappers: Do you still use the terms record or album? I would hate to think that I was tragically unhip! (Oh sh*t, I bet you don’t use the term hip either!!!!)
Nobody’s Child uses the same orchestral lead-in as Boy Blue, which helps tie the album together. A Nice touch. The body of the song is another song that fits better with the later ELO catalog. It has a little bit of a bluesy rock beat with a nice piano riff 2/3 of the way through. Good but not great song.
Track eight, Illusions In G Major has a boogie-woogie – orchestral – rock feel. (Has this term ever been used, before or since?) ELO music often defies categorization because of its uniqueness. This is one of those songs.
Track nine is the title track. Eldorado is a slow, ballad which features horns and drawn out Lynne vocals. Being that it is the title track, I would have expected more. But it is probably the weakest song on the album. Not bad, but nothing special. It does keep the album from being a five star album, IMHO.
The final track reprises the very first. It is Eldorado Overture – Finale. It is the perfect ending to a not quite perfect album. A couple of songs that don’t quiet fit and a mediocre title track mar a great concept that almost was pulled off. It is too bad that Jeff Lynne and ELO abandoned the Orchestral Rock concept, because they were oh so close to pulling it off to perfection.
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