El Moodio

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[10]
Calgary Herald	B+[11]
Robert Christgau	[12]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[13]
Los Angeles Times	[14]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide	[15]
Rolling Stone	[16]
(The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide	[17]

Rolling Stone concluded that "the lion's share of the material reveals a knack for emotionally charged scenes, underscored by Bean's brusque drums," writing that "the root of great rock & roll isn't originality but spirit—and Eleventh Dream Day has passion to burn."^[16] The Washington Post determined that the album "still doesn't unite the band's influences—the Velvet Underground, Neil Young and the Dream Syndicate, to name just a few—into a distinctive whole."^[18] Greil Marcus, in Artforum, wrote that "on 'Rubber Band', singer/guitarist Rick Rizzo asks the musical question, How far can a phrase be stretched before every trace of the meaning it began with is gone?, and doesn't answer it."^[19]

USA Today praised "the shimmery harmonies, grabby melodies and guitar-rock intensity."^[20] The Calgary Herald called the album "outsider rock that doesn't try to overthrow the system, that just wants to hang on and hope—and rock with a controlled rage."^[11] The Gazette opined that "when Rizzo and Matthew O'Bannon's guitars work alchemy in the ballads, the band approaches grandeur."^[21] The Virginian-Pilot deemed El Moodio "an album of moody, nervous guitars and edgy singing."^[22]