After co-founder Roy Wood left Electric Light Orchestra following the release of their self-titled 1971 debut, it seemed that the band would never recover from losing one of its co-frontmen. 1973's Electric Light Orchestra II showed that the band was at a loss without Wood. Fortunately, On The Third Day, the band's album released later that year, showed that Jeff Lynne was more than capable enough of fronting the band. What had resulted may have been drastically different from Lynne and Wood's initial impressions of what they wanted in a band, but these results were solid nonetheless. In 1974, the band released its fourth album, the wildly-progressive concept album Eldorado. Read on for my review.

This album is one of the best Electric Light Orchestra albums out there, and one of the few that truly captures the band in its prime. This is one of the band's albums that is considerably less "singles oriented" than the others available, which goes to show just how much work went into the album itself. Following this album, the band would remain good, but would focus a lot more energy into creating hit singles. Through the course of this album, Jeff Lynne and his Electric Light Orchestra bandmates explore a plethora of styles, from rockers to whimsical instrumentals that only these guys could pull off. The biggest hit to come from this album was probably Can't Get It Out Of My Head, which is one of the band's finest popular tunes. In the end, this stands as one of the band's best albums of all. Though not my personal favorite, it deserves all five stars.

The most recent release of this album (as of June 13, 2004) has remastered the album, revamped the liner notes, and even added a few bonus tracks! Admittingly though, the remastering job could have been done better. Likewise, the bonus tracks, while good, probably won't really appeal to anyone outside of the die-hard Electric Light Orchestra fans. Oh, well. No complaints.

Eldorado is a progressive rock masterpiece. It's hard to believe that the band managed to create such an impressive-sounding masterpiece with the technology of 1974! My personal favorite Electric Light Orchestra album, after hearing this one, remains their self-titled debut (called No Answer in the States), but this one comes very close in terms of overall quality. Don't pass it by if you're a fan of the band.

ELO's last orchestra album
Eldorado's predecessor was 'On the Third Day' and showed the band taking a more guitar and keyboard led route. Or in other words the Electric in the Electirc Light Orchestra was taking over. However Eldorado is very much so led by the Orchestra. This would be their last album to do this. Which is a shame as ELO could have taken a far better route than the one they took (pop rock). In the subsequent albums the Orchestra, by this point consisting of two Cello's and a Violin, would be used less and less, eventually being discarded with the album 'Time.' So this was ELO's last great album?
Yes, the album has the concept of being lost in a dream world, and although some of the songs are very odd, both musically and lyrically, this helps create the illusion of the dream world. Each song is explained by a few words of Jeff Lynnes in the fold out booklet. The one song to come out of this album as famous is 'Can't Get it Out of my Head,' which is the only song to have little ochestration in it.
On this remastered addition there are two extra tracks. One, a seven minute instrumental summery of the albums mains songs linked together, and a early version of one of the albums other songs.
It is a beautiful piece of music by the ELO, especially the finale, where everything comes to a head. I wont attempt to describe the beauty instead I shall STRONGLY advise you to buy this album. It is the ELO's last masterpiece.

Remastered from what--a CASSETTE???
Enjoy the rich texture of tape hiss like you've never heard it on a CD before! Thrill to "bonus" tracks that have never been released before...and still haven't, for all practical purposes! If you already own a copy of this undisputed masterpiece in any other form, save your money and skip this Sony Epic "expanded" version.

As a longtime ELO fan, I find the thought of unreleased bonus tracks hard to pass up. But this is no First Light reissue with alternate versions, live performances, unique remixes, archival pictures or other goodies of historical interest. None of that rubbish here, mate.

The so-called unreleased track, "Dark City," is an early demo for what became "Laredo Tornado"--and it actually is briefly interesting, almost an inside look at the creative process. But it's only a snippet, a soundbite, a 46-second tease, half of a single potato chip.

And the purported instrumental medley scarcely seems to have been written or arranged as such at all. It appears to be nothing more than the original backing orchestral tracks, excerpted and spliced together in a way I can only describe as ham-fisted. In the Beatles anthology, George Martin and company had the good taste to present us with the complete orchestral tracks for a handful of songs like "Eleanor Rigby" and "Within You, Without You." That was most instructive and rewarding to the ear. This sorta-medley is a huge disappointment compared to that approach.

As flawed as the sound is with hiss and other audible defects, I do have to give credit where it is due. The remastering does bring out some brass parts that were easily overlooked before in various songs, and improves the clarity of some guitar parts. On the other hand, it also pushes the tympani into the background in the finale.

If you don't have this album and no other version is currently available, it's worth the money. But if you buy the Sony "expanded" version simply to get the bonus features, you'll be wasting your cash.
A concept album about the fantastic world of dreams, Eldorado may be the Electric Light Orchestra's most fully realized recording. Combining the grand, sweeping vision of founders Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with the craftsmanship and outstanding production values that marked the megahit albums A New World Record and Out of the Blue, Eldorado is a near-perfect fusion of rock & roll with a full orchestra. While newcomers won't necessarily find much here in terms of standout tracks, true ELO fans will know that this merely demonstrates the quality of the album as a coherent whole. Digitally remastered, it sounds better than ever. --Robert Burrow