Electric Light Orchestra: &#;Eldorado&#;—A Mighty Spark
REVIEWS:Album Rewinds
by Thomas KintnerToward the end of the s, popular music broadened its borders, as artists experimented with expansive approaches that ranged from the portentous to the absurd. The Beatles were in the midst of a remarkable progression into ever-headier territory, and paved the way toward meshing complicated arrangements with grand orchestration when they shifted focus to studio work with ’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The richness of their ideas in that period outlined concepts that became foundations for entirely new approaches, not least among them the music of their English countrymen the Electric Light Orchestra, who leapt from a springboard of inspiration into a singular body of work.
By , after three years, as many albums and some commercial headway, Electric Light Orchestra (who had just done away with the article preceding its name for its latest record, and would usually be dubbed ELO for short) remained a work in progress. On the Third Day was the band’s first without founder (and driver of its initial vision from his days spearheading the rock/classical fusion act T
50 Years Ago: Electric Light Orchestra Finds Gold in &#;Eldorado&#;
Going into the mid-'70s, the Electric Light Orchestra had managed only modest hits with "Showdown" and a cover of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven." If those songs only pushed the door open slightly, the transitional Eldorado would kick it wide open.
Released in September , the project was essentially a concept album. Jeff Lynne and company make full use of the studio as an instrument and put together a warm and inviting album that still stands as a bold indicator of future successes &#x; even as it shows how far Lynne had to go.
That starts, of course, with Lynne's passion for all things Beatles. With Eldorado, he wears that influence on his sleeve. As the slightly ominous "Eldorado Overture" kicks in, the listener knows this is not just a rock band with strings but rather an honest-to-goodness rock and roll orchestra at play. The overture gives way to what is arguably Lynne's finest composition, "Can't Get It Out of My Head" &#x; though it remains such a blatant Beatles rip-off that it might make Noel Gallagher blush.
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Eldorado (Electric Light Orchestra album)
studio album by Electric Light Orchestra
Eldorado (subtitled A Symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra) is the fourth studio album by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). It was released in the United States in September by United Artists Records and in the United Kingdom in October by Warner Bros. Records.
Concept
[edit]Eldorado is the first complete ELO concept album; bandleader Jeff Lynne conceived the storyline before he wrote any music.[2] The plot follows a Walter Mitty-like character who journeys into fantasy worlds via dreams, to escape the disillusionment of his mundane reality. Lynne began to write the album in response to criticisms from his father, a classical music lover, who said that Electric Light Orchestra's repertoire "had no tune".[3]
Recording
[edit]Eldorado marks the first album on which Jeff Lynne hired an orchestra; on previous albums band members would play strings using multitracked overdubbing.[2]Louis Clark co-arranged, with Lynne (and keyboardist Richard Tandy), and conducted the strings. The group's three resident string players continued to perform
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