Noteworthy Notions - ELO : 'Eldorado'

NOTEWORTHY NOTIONS

'Eldorado: A Symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra.'
ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA - 1974

Jeff Lynne went for a much bolder concept with his fourth studio album, expanding the orchestra them for a sound that he really wanted at the time.

For this he had a full orchestra for Eldorado, an ambitious symphonic concept album. All the songs are seagued together and include running musical themes throughout. The end result of Lynne’s concept is an incredibly rich sound, full of the dense layers and harmonies that would go on to become the famous ELO ‘sound’.

It is very hard for me a pick a favourite cut on this LP, as the highlights of this masterpiece are many. ‘Can’t get It Out Of My Head’ follows the impressive and dominating ‘Eldorado overture’and it is a unique song full of sweeping strings and sung perfectly by Lynne (but when is an ELO song not). ‘Boy Blue’ is a rollercoaster of a track, loud and bouncy as it tells it’s story of a returning war hero. ‘Laredo Tornado’ is a heavy affair, with loud guitars and Jeff’s vocal range on top form. Probably the most memorable tune, for me, is ‘Mr. Kingdom’, starting out as a simple keyboard tune with equally simple lyric, bilding as the track goes on to the tidal wave of sound that is quickly and unexpecatedy cut off be the next song.

Eldorado is a fascinating concept album, doing the genre proud, full of wonderful sounds and textured tunes. Like all ELO, it is a forgotten classic, yet more proof that Jeff Lynne is one of the most underrated singer/songwriters of our time.

Review by Jim Stanton

Release Details

Tracklisting

Eldorado Overture
Can't Get It Out Of My Head
Boy Blue
Laredo Tornado
Poor Boy (The Greenwood)
Mister Kingdom
Nobody's Child
Illusions in G Major
Eldorado
Eldorado Finale