Jeff Lynne’s ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA “Alone In The Universe” /CD/

Remastered re-release of the fourth full-length studio album by legendary British Progressive Pop/Rock band.
Sub-titled "A Symphony By The Electric Light Orchestra", ELO's fourth LP was its first to feature an actual orchestra, as opposed to just overdubbed string parts. This is the album where Jeff Lynne finally found the sound he'd wanted since co-founding Electric Light Orchestra three years earlier. Up to this point, most of the band's music had been self-contained - Lynne, Richard Tandy, et al., providing whatever was needed, vocally or instrumentally, even if it meant overdubbing their work layer upon layer. Lynne saw the limitations of this process, however, and opted for the presence of an orchestra - it was only 30 pieces, but the result was a much richer musical palette than the band had ever had to work with, and their most ambitious and successful record up to that time.
Indeed, Eldorado was strongly reminiscent in some ways of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". Not that it could ever have the same impact or be as distinctive, but it had its feet planted in so many richly melodic and varied musical traditions, yet made it all work in a Rock context, that it did recall the Beatles classic. It was a very romantic work, especially on the opening "Eldorado Overture", which was steeped in a wistful 1920s/1930s notion of popular fantasy (embodied in movies and novels like James Hilton's "Lost Horizon" and Somerset Maugham's "The Razor's Edge") about disillusioned seekers.
This is a concept album about the lonely, romantic daydreams of a man desperate to escape the drudgery of his daily life, "Eldorado" weaves its songs into a dense, atmospheric tapestry that is essentially Pop-Prog. It boasted Lynne's best single up to that time, "Can't Get It Out of My Head," which most radio listeners could never get out of their respective heads, either. 
Called "something of a triumph" by Rolling Stone at the time, "Eldorado" was later used by experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger as the soundtrack to the 1978 re-release of his surreal 1954 film "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome", which certainly speaks to the album's transportive, cinematic qualities.
The integration of the orchestra would become even more thorough on future albums, but "Eldorado" was notable for mixing the band and orchestra (and a choir) in ways that did no violence to the best elements of both.
In July 2010, the album named one of Classic Rock Magazine's "50 Albums That Built Prog Rock".
On June 17, 2015, the album ranked #43 on Rolling Stone's "50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time".
Superior Audio Quality 180g vinyl.
Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, 1974/2016 (88875175271). Made in Germany. 


Tracklist:

Side One
1. Eldorado Overture 2:13 
2. Can't Get It Out Of My Head 4:21 
3. Boy Blue 5:19 
4. Laredo Tornado 5:30 
5. Poor Boy (The Greenwood) 2:55

Side Two
6. Mister Kingdom 5:30 
7. Nobody's Child 3:56 
8. Illusions In G Major 2:37 
9. Eldorado 5:18 
10. Eldorado Finale 1:30

Total playing time: 39:09 min.