Eels are one of America's many indie rock bands with more than vocal
harmonies and love songs. Instead of surf or garage rock at the heart of their
output, Eels like to do things a little differently. If I was to classify Eels among
other artists, I would put them somewhere between Beck and The Flaming
Lips. They're not exactly psych, but they're not anti-folk either. Eels are
among an elite group of American artists that are serious, bold and ever so
easy to disregard as boring. The National, Interpol, The Dave Matthew's Band...
Eels. When I was at Latitude Festival in 2011, I decided to give Eels a miss in
favour of seeing Suede, I'm sure Eels would have been more exciting, though I'm
not sure, especially considering their previous albums have been dire. The five
piece are back for the first time in three years with their 10th studio album,
and it’s growing old already.
It's not that I have a problem with Eels, or to single him out Mark Oliver
Everett, better known as E. The album does actually start off well with
"Bombs Away". E's fuzzy vocal grows on the listener, as does the
thumping percussion and fuzzed up guitars. These tracks start off reasonably
okay, but end on high points. Wonderful, Glorious has to be the first
Eels album that keeps the listener entertained throughout. "Kinda
Fuzzy" reads my mind, fuzz. Keyboard riffs enter, as do the layered E
vocals. Like before, this track ends with noise, so much noise. I like this
easy, slow start and manic ending to tracks. I'm not convinced by the lighter,
Elvis Costello type tracks on Wonderful, Glorious, "Accident Prone", "On the Ropes" and "True Original". They're
not as thought provoking or enticing as the louder Eels tracks. If I'm going to
be put through 50 minutes of Eels, I want some noise for goodness sake.
"Peach Blossom" does just that. Loud drums with reverb, a guitar that
actually could find itself on a Flaming Lips record and a spacious vocal that E
delivers like the strong vocalist he is.
The first half of "The Turnaround" is just like "Accident
Prone". For some reason, I'm hearing Robbie William on these slow, soft
rock type tracks. Even when the final third kicks in with the hook, I'm still
hearing Robbie Williams, it's peculiar, but I guess Eels aren’t the left-field
of artists and 90s Robbie Williams isn't the poppiest either. Please don't take
offence by that... I'm content with hearing tracks like "Stick Together" all day every day. The drumming makes the listener get up and
start dancing, as do the light reverberated guitars on the left side of the
recording. E sings with passion and delivers his best vocal on the album. He
sounds comforting, without shouting with lo-fi like fuzz and extra layers. This
is the strong point to Wonderful, Glorious. Eels know how to write a
decent song and they deliver on many occasions, this is one of them.
Wonderful, Glorious is different to the concept trilogy, you have to
go back eight years to Blinking Lights and Other Revelations to even
relate to Wonderful, Glorious; and even then you find a double album by
an indie rock band. A further two years will take you back to one of the worst
Eels albums, Shootenanny! and
another two years for the filler Souljacker. Basically, Eels have a bad catalogue
of average albums and concepts. They used to be great, back in 1996 and 1998
with their first two solid albums Beautiful Freak and Electro-Shock
Blues. It's always hard for artists to go back to the drawing board and
create something better than they've already created. Think of how Noel
Gallagher felt in 2000, he still hasn't gotten over how Oasis failed to
reproduce a Definitely Maybe or (What's The Story) Morning Glory? And (god help me) I'm using
Oasis as a comparison to Eels here. Wonderful, Glorious is the Beady Eye
of Eels' catalogue. E never sounds believable or relatable. Only on "I Am Building a Shrine" does he put across a vocal that suits his lyricism. And
his lyricism has drastically dropped on this album. There are no clear quotes
to be taken from E's lyrics on Wonderful, Glorious, apart from the few
moments of beauty on the back tracks. E sings: "All the love you bring me,
all the tender words you sing me. And all the suns within your smile," he
sings it well, but he still sounds cheerful. If we go back to Frightened
Rabbit's fourth album Pedestrian Verse, there was a striking and
memorable lyric right from the off, and that's what separates a good
singer-songwriter album from a dud.
Eels have all the instrumentals wound up, spick and span. I can't plug holes
in their fantastic production and excellent guitar effects. They know how to
record tracks and they do it well in E's home studio with E producing the
album. Wonderful, Glorious is the outcome of an Eels jamming session and
a post-jam lyric addition. This works on certain occasions, but you can really
hear that some of these lyrics are not intended for the cheery instrumentation. Even
on the self-titled closer E sounds a little too excited and happy for his
notebook of personal lyrics.
I'm just not feeling Wonderful, Glorious. I don't think I've 'felt' an Eels
album since 1998, and that's quite a long time ago, same with Oasis... (If we're
still doing that comparison thing.) Honestly, my favourite Eels recording has to
be their cover of Daniel Johnston's "Living Life". It's a track
written with emotion, power and with a whole lot of guts. DJ delivers it like a
true honest musician, and E covers it with the same conviction and energy as
DJ's original. I'm telling you this because Wonderful, Glorious is an
empty album without deep tracks and ear catching lyricism. The instrumentals
are spot on and that’s where the majority of my praise is directed, the way
everything comes together is somewhat off-putting and typical of the post-1998
Eels.
~Eddie
4.9
