ELO started off as a side project by two members of the very successful band from Birmingham, England, the Move. Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood wanted to explore ways to incorporate symphonic arrangements into their progressive, yet poppy, chord progressions that each had begun to perfect. Soon after, Wood absconded with integral members of the newly formed ELO, leaving Jeff Lynne in charge with a skeleton crew. On this, the band's fourth album, the vision seemed to become reality and perhaps that is what makes this album all the more poignant: it is an album about a Walter-Mitty type character trying to live in his fantasy world of Eldorado.