Wonderful, Glorious by The Eels

Wonderful, Glorious, the tenth studio album from Eels, came out in February 2013 on Vagrant and E Works, and for once the title isn't dripping with irony. Mark Oliver Everett, the Los Angeles songwriter who has been the one fixed point in the band since the start, produced it himself, and he sounds like a man who has decided to stop whispering.

With Koool G Murder on bass and synths, The Chet and P-Boo on guitars and Knuckles pounding the drums, the record has the swagger of a gang rather than the hush of a confessional. The guitars grind, the grooves strut, and "New Alphabet" is a rumbling, stomping bit of defiance with E growling over the top. A world tour followed, and the songs were clearly built to be played loud in front of people.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.