Released - September 1974
Genre - Art Rock
Producer - Jeff Lynne
Selected Personnel - Jeff Lynne (Vocals/Guitar/Bass/Keyboards); Bev Bevan (Drums/Percussion); Richard Tandy (Piano/Keyboards/Synthesisers); Mike De Albuquerque (Bass); Mik Kaminski (Violin); Hugh McDowell (Cello); Mike Edwards (Cello); Louis Clark (Orchestral Arrangements)
Standout Track - Laredo Tornado
After the grandiose, ambitious epics of ELO 2 in 1973, the Electric Light Orchestra began the gradual metamorphosis into a stadium pop-rock band rather than the symphonic art rock group they initially envisioned themselves as. On The Third Day, from later in 1973, saw their more arty and symphonic elements still present and correct with the string parts still carrying many of the main melodies, but that album also saw the band deliver a couple of simple pop singles for the first time in the form of "Showdown" and the brilliant, crunchy rock of "Ma-Ma-Ma Belle," featuring none other than Marc Bolan on guitar. Eldorado is perhaps the final ELO album on which their initial artistic ambitions are still discernible before they called it a day and and went for full-on pop.
There is still a strong sense that this is in the vein of "early" ELO, with its conceptual premise and its heavily orchestrated overture and symphonic structure (the record is even subtitled "A Symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra,") but now, for the first time, it feels like simple, pop songwriting and catchy hooks and melodies are as much of a concern for Jeff Lynne as are the more progressive elements of the band's early work. There's also a cleanness and a crispness to the sound of the album that's very much a sign of things to come - on albums like The Electric Light Orchestra and ELO 2, there was a rawness and a scratchiness to the sound that derived largely from the fact that every string part was recorded by the band's resident individual string players and were then overdubbed by Lynne, whereas on Eldorado he hired a full orchestra to record the string parts for the first time, with arrangements and conducting handled by Louis Clark, who would become a fixture for most ELO albums in the future. This slightly reductionist approach to the idea of the orchestrations of the album was possibly a major tipping point in the band's transformation - rather than building themselves on the manifesto of playing rock music using classical instrumentation, those orchestral parts simply became another element of the sound that needed to be incorporated one way or the other, with the focus now on the core band and chiefly on Lynne himself.
It's worth pointing out that none of this is necessarily a bad thing, as it becomes increasingly clear when listening through ELO's discography that Jeff Lynne's great strength is in writing catchy pop tunes rather than in masterminding grand, orchestral pieces of progressive music. While ELO 2 showed that he was still capable of delivering something truly original and unusual, but On The Third Day's only real standout moments were its two hit singles, and all the moments of Eldorado where it tries to skew itself towards the conceptual come across as slightly hamfisted. The record is Lynne's first attempt at a concept album, supposedly telling the story of a man whose daydreams become reality but, beyond an opaque opening spoken word narrative that makes very little sense ("The dreamer, the unwoken fool...") and a reprise of the same at the end, it's very difficult to make any coherent narrative of the random songs presented here, and Lynne's efforts to organise it into a conceptual whole via the odd recurring musical theme just feels slightly forced.
But the songwriting is the most consistent and catchily memorable of any ELO album up to this point. "Can't Get It Out Of My Head" is a sweet romantic ballad that became the album's big hit, and "Laredo Tornado" is one of the coolest rock songs the band had recorded yet, and one of the few songs on the album that gives the resident string players (violinist Mik Kaminski and cellists Hugh McDowell and Mike Edwards) some cool riffs to play with rather than just replacing them with a full orchestra. The slow, menacing groove of "Laredo Tornado" as well as its raw, edgy guitar riff makes it one of the most memorable ELO rockers. "Nobody's Child" is a slow, bluesy number dripping with attitude and building to a dramatic, cinematic climax via jazzy piano, punchy horns and scything strings, and "Illusions In G Major" is an almost comically frantic rockabilly number in the Chuck Berry mould that boasts a raucous guitar solo from Lynne. Finally, "Eldorado" is a simply beautiful song with one of Lynne's most magisterial and epic tunes which wouldn't be out of place in the world of Broadway musicals, a mood he was almost certainly chasing with the conceptual ambitions of the album. The closing "Eldorado Finale" is another heavily orchestrated instrumental that sees a reprise from that nonsensical opening voiceover, reminding the casual listener that they're supposed to have been following some sort of story that has probably gone entirely over their head.
While the songs, at their best, are of a quality good enough to guarantee it a place in my heart as an album I really enjoy, it remains perhaps the most frustratingly uneven of the ELO albums I've bothered to include on this list, due to its indecision about what it wants to be. After the art rock masterpiece of ELO 2, and before the pop heights of A New World Record or Out Of The Blue made their appearance, this album tries to do both and struggles to really convince as a symphonic concept album. There's also a sense that, for a brief time at least, ELO had become little more than a Jeff Lynne solo project and that lack of a full band identity harms the atmosphere here ever so slightly. Bassist Mike Du Albuquerque quit the band during the recording of Eldorado due to feeling that touring commitments kept him away from his family for too long, so that the majority of the bass parts on the album are played by Lynne himself, and it's often unclear which keyboard parts were contributed by Lynne and which by Richard Tandy. While Lynne would always remain the band's creative centre, playing many of the instruments and writing all the songs, there is definitely a sense that as they settled into their pop phase they coalesced as a true band once again, while here Lynne's dictatorial takeover of the band, recruiting full orchestras in place of the individual string players, gives him a little too much to try and keep a handle of, and it ends up feeling slightly confused as a result.
Still, for anybody keen on following the work of ELO with any kind of genuine interest, this is a necessary album in that it documents the moment where the band's pop sensibilities first truly outshone their previous artistic ambitions and provided a true glimpse at the stadium pop rock act that was soon to follow. Not only that, but in its finest moments ("Laredo Tornado," "Eldorado," "Nobody's Child,") it really does boast some of Lynne's finest work, and is only let down by being a bit of a confused mess in select places. The album would achieve success in the US, but made little impact in the UK, a dynamic that would be true of much of the band's career. The next step was 1975's Face The Music, an album that delivered their first huge hit in the brilliant "Evil Woman," but that actually emerges as a frustratingly uneven and fairly tedious album other than a couple of hit singles. 1976's A New World Record would finally grant them success back on home turf in the UK and sees them firmly settled into their pop shoes, delivering something far more confident and assured in that mould. But more on that another day.
Track Listing:
All songs written by Jeff Lynne.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment