ELDORADO

So far, I have rated ELO a little over their own real value (giving them a half-star over what I believe they really deserve - except for the debut album), but with this album, usually regarded by a lot of progheads as their masterpiece: I feel I have to set the record straight! If most progheads look down unnecessarily on previous album, they generally tend to regard this one a bit too highly. Yes, it is fully symphonic and conceptual (and therefore progressive in its own right), but it is POP rather than ROCK (something previous album were not) and just for that ELO loses a bit of credential to this reviewer's eyes.

But please do not let me be a party pooper as the songwriting on this album is still phenomenal - even though only written by Lynne himself, it must've been arranged by the whole group. With this album, Lynne actually veers away (finally some might say) from his Fab Four infatuation, but I feel this might be exactly where the weakness in this album lies. Although still plainly an ELO album and in itself a small tour de force, songwriting-wise it does not really resemble any other album of theirs. I think that my main gripe about this album is that the strings and full orchestras are over-used a tad (ton?) too much for my tastes. But some of the evident melodies of previous albums are lacking and even the hit Can't Get It INTO My Head is not catchy for me.

Funnily enough, it is the album that most everyone is ready to laud to the skies, and I personally cannot help feeling that ELO just missed the holy grail by a few hairs had they been a bit less pretentious with this one. But nevertheless, this album should be the proof to dubitative progheads, that ELO has its own full place in the Archives.