Eels
Wonderful, Glorious (2013)
I only know of Eels by reputation. Bandleader (well, actually, to be fair, he is the band) E (real name Mark Everett) is a doyen of the indie rock scene, and generally seen as one of the more genre-hopping musicians of the modern age. By extension, Eels have been a band impossible to pigeonhole, such has their sound and style changed from album to album. They've done standalone records, a concept trilogy, and albums dealing with Everett's long, troubled family history.
Last year's Wonderful, Glorious was developed by E by jamming with the band's current supporting musicians (though all songs are credited solely to Everett). Reviewers at the time highlighted the album's harder indie edge, while pointing out that Everett, unusually, sounded happy, in stark contrast to the band's often dark, depressing mood.
The Album
Combining edgy indie rock with jazz and even 60's garage rock influences, Wonderful, Glorious is musically quite an interesting, and very listenable, album. The drumming is often heavily reliant on big rumbling tom rhythms, the bass playing is solid and occasionally super-groovy, while the guitars alternate between intertwined picked melodies and fuzzy, scratchy distorted riffs.
The raw, 60s edge can be heard on Peach Blossom and Your Mama Warned You. Both have sparsely recorded guitars and crackly vocal lines, though the former also has a snappy, dry drum sound that gives the recording a mildly lo-fi edge. Peach Blossom also cleverly uses some sweeter keyboard lines to offset the scratchy fuzz of the guitars. The countryesque drawl of On The Ropes provides one of the album's genuinely beautiful moments, while The Turnaround is the album's choice tune; those meandering guitar lines mix together beautifully, while Everett's vocal moves from a lower, ethereal lilt to an urgent, anguished cry at the song's climax. New Alphabet is like a Beck castoff, its bluesy riff and matter-of-fact gruff lyric calling to mind anything from Beck's golden period of the 90s, Stick Together creates a catchy jazz vibe thanks to the chord progression hook and the jazz club tom rhythms, while the underrated Wonderful, Glorious melds disco stylings in the verses with pure Beach Boysesque multi-tracked harmony vocals and organs in the choruses.
It's not all good news for mine, though. Everett is a wonderful songwriter; a real storyteller with a gift for conveying power and emotion through lyric, vocal and music together. Yet his gruff, raspy vocal doesn't always work with the material, and can be too scratchy for mine - for example, the otherwise decent Bombs Away, featuring a quite glorious vocal about no longer holding your tongue when speaking to others, can be a tough listen when Everett's hacking away. The better songs on the album also happen to be songs where either that rasp works well, or it isn't really as noticeable. Additionally, some songs are little more than filler - for instance, Accident Prone, which could have been a half-decent edgy indie folk tune, ends up being little more than a laboratory combination of Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, all gnarled growl and deep-voiced tuneless warble, while Open My Present and You're My Friend don't exactly set the world on fire.
The Verdict
There are probably better albums to start off with if you're going to explore the Eels catalogue than Wonderful, Glorious. E's vocal stylings take some getting used to, and it would be interesting to hear how he handles a softer approach to music. Nevertheless, it's a decent slice of indie rock that proves there's still a place in indie music for an abrasive, edgy aesthetic.
My rating: 6.9/10
Standout Tracks
The Turnaround
New Alphabet
Peach Blossom
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