Gently engaging
The third album in E's trilogy of records is not his best album ever but it still has some lovely moments and some great melodies. The usual mix of super cool, laid back dreaminess, keyboards, electro beats and interesting (often downbeat)lyrics are in abundance; 'I'm A Hummingbird' is very beautiful, lyrically and musically, with a sweeping melody, which lifts to peaks of gentle intensity throughout, little noises and off key electro blips in the background add layers.
Occasionally the album can become a little too soft and floaty though, 'The Morning' can drift past without you noticing if you're not careful, but then you get hit with the punchy 'Baby Loves Me' straight afterwards which mixes a bluesy vocal with electro beats and funky guitar. On the flip side, tracks like the fantastic, groovy, 60s laced 'Looking Up' and catchy little sing along tune, 'I Like The Way This Is Going', really pick up the pace throughout the record and provide moments of poppy release.
'Spectacular Girl' plays like classic Eels tune, a quirky little melody twinkles and fuzzy distortion fills the background, it's sweet and lovely, as is 'What I Have To Offer' with violin layered underneath everything else. The album seems to fly past as many of the songs are quite short, however a few of them are of a similar tone and sometimes it's hard to tell where one ends and another begins, especially tracks like the instrumental, 'After The Earthquake', which is more like a short musical interlude, placed as it is between two far longer tracks (perhaps that's the intention); then again this does feel like you're getting more of an album experience and it is very cohesive.
So, not all hits, but nevertheless this is an engaging record with enough quirk and lovely melodies to keep you coming back to it.