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.