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Of all the bigger arena bands out of the 70s, you'd be hard pressed to find one that carries less critical cache (and coolness) than E.L.O. I mean, how often do you read or hear about people being big fans or recommending re-evaluations of their catalog? How often do people wear their fandom of the band on their sleeve like a band like Queen? I'd say almost never. Not that they were ever at such a level of popularity, but most of music nerd-dom treat them like some shameful little secret. Which is odd really as Jeff Lynne and company were responsible for some of the best art(ish) pop of that decade. Sure, the production and arrangements may tend toward the grandiose and bombastic and Lynne's Beatle (well, mostly McCartney) fetish borders occasionally on plagiarism, but it's all unapologetically dedicated to the lush pop melody.

What I've always liked about E.L.O. is that despite the slightly overblown nature of the band, their output never really feels pretentious. The arrangements seem more celebratory than ostentatious. Eldorado was the first album of theirs that was able to do this from start to finish. While the album isn't reliant on singles ("Can't Get It Out Of My Head" is probably the only track that still gets regular airplay), it's remarkably consistent. It's an album more concerned with its whole than its individual parts. That's probably why I prefer this to "A New World Record", despite the highs on that album being considerably higher. It just feels more coherent.

I doubt a resurgence of E.L.O. appreciation is going to come any time soon, but it wouldn't be the worst thing if this and the following three albums got listened to a little more.