Eldorado

E.L.O. | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000025DP
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,360 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Eldorado Overture

2. Can't Get It Out of My Head

3. Boy Blue

4. Laredo Tornado

5. Poor Boy (The Greenwood)

6. Mister Kingdom

7. Nobody's Child

8. Illusions in G Major

9. Eldorado

10. Eldorado Finale

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A guilty pleasure, but a true classic from a vanished genre, September 10, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eldorado (Audio CD)

I've recently become reacquainted with this recording, which I first fell in love with at the age of 12-13. It's funny that we live in an age that has been willing to redefine the likes of Abba and the Bee Gees as respectable music -- that is, even the most superficial pop can be celebrated from a countercultural sort of mindset -- but the art-rock excesses of the 1970s are still taboo. Over the last 20 years, pretentious displays of musical erudition within the bounds of pop music have become the unforgivable sin. Accordingly, any record with a title like, "A Symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra" is going to be sneered at. So if you buy this CD, you may feel compelled to hide it from your friend who works in the record store.

This isn't the ELO of "Livin' Thing" and "Sweet Talkin' Woman." If you've come looking for ELO at their most snappily pop, you've come to the wrong place. But what *is* here is far, far more rewarding.

To be fair, pop musicians did get carried away with this stuff in the 1970s. No doubt impressed by the Beatles' ability to combine and sequence several songs seamlessly (Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road) in a sort of medley or symphonic-movement format, as well as their ability to incorporate classical instruments into pop songs, bands from ELP to Pink Floyd to ELO to the Moody Blues all seemed to determine to show off their classical "chops" and technical wizardy, and in the course of this, the pop aesthetic was lost amid in-your-face "Look what we can do!" messages. The difference between Eldorado and most of these records is that Jeff Lynne's songs are so darn good in a purely pop way.

Jeff Lynne throws the whole kitchen sink in here -- lavish orchestrations, a choir singing backup, lyrics that steal from Shakespeare and Walter Scott, musical stylings borrowed from the soundtracks of old Hollywood. And I disagree with those who find this to be pompous; rather, it's done with a wink, and it is pure fun.

The opening strains of the record, the Eldorado Overture, sound like the soundtrack of some old 1950s film version of a Grimm's Fairy Tale. It's far too whimsical to be taken as anything other than a bit of parody, but the energy that is kicked up when the orchestra and the band get going is very real, and when the Overture settles into ELO's classic Can't Get it Out of My Head, only a callous listener could avoid being affected by it.

One thing that the CD reminds me of is how lush and distinctive was ELO's sound then, the way that Lynne combines the string section and his electrical instruments with great ingenuity. As soon as the full ensemble starts playing together halfway through the first verse of Can't Get it Out of My Head, you're reminded that nothing else sounds like this.

And there are plenty of other truly great songs on this album. Laredo Tornado is forbiddingly bluesy, and I can't quite put my finger on the style that is being riffed off of with the strings. Mister Kingdom is a lovely melody and is made more beautiful by a restrained performance of the verses. Illusions in G Major is mindless fun, and Eldorado is really a gorgeous tune, one of Lynne's best.

But even the ones that rank below those masterpieces -- Boy Blue, Poor Boy, Nobody's Child -- show off Lynne's ability to pull off impressive atmospheric styling (for instance, a film noir feel in Nobody's Child.)

Is it all too over-the-top to be a rock classic in the sense of the Rolling Stones or the Beatles' music? Indeed it is. But that doesn't diminish what Eldorado is -- a combined display of musical virtuosity and pop music composition that is nearly without parallel. Jeff Lynne went on to propel ELO to pop music stardom, but this creation of his, on the brink of that stardom, is a jewel, an expression of a talent that is no less unique and amazing simply because pop music chose afterwards to go in a different direction.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The legend is true...listen for yourself!, March 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Eldorado (Audio CD)

With 1974's ELDORADO (their fourth studio album), the Electric Light Orchestra launched an unabated 12-year, 9 album trail of consistently incredible brilliance. Not only did this album raise the bar for ELO, but for all progressive rock bands. ELDORADO, billed as "A Symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra" is a powerful concept album about the grandiose renaissance dreams of a poor worker, stuck at a "bank job in the city." "Overture" and "Can't Get it Out of My Head" lay out the foundation for the story, and remind us that, in dreams, "no pain may kiss the brow/the love of ages fills the head." Musically, the orchestral richness of ELO is in full bloom throughout the album...a heavenly concoction of strings, synths, and guitar work that is alternately shimmery and biting. "Boy Blue" is an underrated ELO classic, with the great line, "I have fought in some of the holiest wars/I have smashed some of the holiest jaws." "Poor Boy (The Greenwood) is a vivid Robin Hood tale and "Illusions in G Major" is another of those great ELO retro-rockers. "Mister Kingdom" is a fine prog-rock ballad and "Eldorado" is all majestic magnificence, as Jeff Lynne's voice ventures into Roy Orbisonville, singing "I will stay, I'll not be back...I will be free, of the world." Lynne carries the listener with him..."free, of the world." With this album, ELO broke free from the obscurity of being a really good "unheard" band into the pantheon of enduring classic rock artists. ELDORADO was an ambitious concept that paid off handsomely 25 years ago, and still continues to pay dividends to the listener who is willing to make the investment today. (By the way, listen to ELDORADO and TIME back-to-back sometime, and be amazed as the story continues.)

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Ultimate" Early ELO!, February 9, 2000

By 

Henry R. Kujawa ("The Forbidden Zone" (Camden, NJ)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eldorado (Audio CD)

ELDORADO strikes me as the culmination of everything Jeff Lynne was striving to achieve from as far back as The Move's LOOKING ON (5 albums earlier). Sweeping string sections (in large part thanks to Louis Clark & a full orchestra!) combining seamlessly with rock & blues guitars. With a unifying theme (daydreaming about a "better life" in the past) and instrumental bridges linking it all together, this is virtually ELO's "Days Of Future Past" (or, to a lesser extent, "Sgt. Pepper"-- Lynne's favorite album!). Standouts are the magnificent "Eldorado Overture", "Can't Get It Out Of My Head", "Boy Blue", "Laredo Tornado", "Poor Boy" (gee, that's the whole first side!) and my personal favorite, "Illusions In G Major" (an ironic "classical" title for the album's sideline into 50's ROCK & ROLL! ). After this, apparently having felt he'd "proved his point", ELO headed back into more pop-based material-- and greater "commercial" success.