Wonderful, Glorious

     I wouldn't say that this album lives up to its name completely, but it had its moments. At a glance, the album artwork is quite bland, though the orange color is pretty. The name though is the most inriguing: Eels. I haven't yet met a band named after an animal that I didn't like (the Gorillaz, Doves, the Beatles, etc.) And eels are pretty extraordinary, so I had similar expectations for this album.
     It started out upbeat with an opening track that pretty much kept my expectations in tact. The second track, called Kinda Fuzzy, was probably my favorite. Not only were the lyrics adorable, but the song as a whole had a happy-go-lucky beat that kept things interesting. After that, the album dipped a little bit, going into some slow and repetitive songs and then changing vocalists for more slow and repetitive songs. By track 7, New Alphabet, Wonderful, Glorious had picked back up again with this kind of shady upbeat rock. The next two tracks went back down in grade, but then the album made a comeback for track 10, Open my Present. The last three songs were forgettable but the conclusion to the album was appropriate. Overall, not a bad album, but not wonderful or glorious and certainly not both of them put together.

Leveler

     This album has an interesting story. So I am once again at the bargain bin, a couple months ago I might add, and I find this cute little album. An animated destroyed farmhouse with some chickens, seems innocent enough. My curiosity peaks me and I buy it. Well I get home, pop it in my boom box, and press play. Little did I know that I would then have to endure forty-eight minutes of metalcore. For those of you who don't know what metalcore is, the internet defines it as "a fusion genre combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk." Needless to say, it took my ears a little while to warm up to it.

     So from listening to the first track, "Empire," I could have guessed that it was meant to be the single; it was just kind of triumphant and structured in its way. Then it went onto track two; I couldn't tell where or when because it all sort of blended together, but it did. The fourth track "Cutting the Ties" was when it started to get better for some reason or another; probably because my ears were then somewhat used to the constant noise. It stayed pretty consistent through track seven. Track eight, "Salt & Light," was more mellow and had some good guitar licks. I really didn't notice anything else after that on the account that they all pretty much sounded the same. Now I'm not saying that it's a bad sound; I don't mind metalcore, it's just a little forceful. All in all, not what I was expecting from the front cover, but still a good album.