MattA75's Full Review: The Aquabats vs. The Floating Eye of Death! And Ot...
After seeing some success come their way with the release of their second album, The Fury of the Aquabats, the Aquabats returned to the studio in early 1999 to record the follow up, The Aquabats Vs. The Floating Eye of Death. First off, yes, that is a title that only the Aquabats could come up with, and the album artwork, featuring all sorts of villians and of course our super-heroes in the band, had me laughing just from looking at it. In fact, the album artwork may be the most ridiculous thing I've laid eyes on in a while.
I admit I was pretty excited for this record. While I wasn't expecting this band to "mature" or "grow up," I was expecting them to put together a more "complete" record than what Fury was. Luckily, I scored a promotional copy of the record about two weeks before it's release from a local used CD shop, whose name will be protected so it doesn't get in trouble. =)
When I got home, I threw it in the player and I have to say I was disappointed on a whole with this record. The album opens with what can only be described as an intro of glorified lounge music (I will use this term a lot in this review, because it's my honest and objective opinion that that is what this CD consists of in a lot of places) before you're thrown into the meat of the track entitled Sequence Erase, a song that is reminiscent of Devo, and is very different from previous Aquabats songs. "Hmmm" I thought, "interesting, at least it's something different."
The next two songs are easily the two best on the album. Giant Robot-Birdhead (no, I am not kidding you) is probably the track most like past Aquabats songs, although this one is definitely much harder sounding musically. The lyrics remain just as asinine as ever ("The giant robot, with bird-like head, the giant robot, he is our friend."), and just a quick note about the liner notes: there is actually an illustration of said giant robot and I must say, everyone should see this, it will definitely cheer you up if you need to be.
The other song is Anti-Matter, a very anthemic and rocking song that focuses more on drums, guitar, and bass than you might be used to if you've followed this band at all. Lyrically, it's very simple, but may be the catchiest thing the Aquabats have come up with yet.
Hey kids, what do we got, not a lot
so what look what we do got.....
....we don't got nothing-so we got
nothing to lose
After this however, the album is very much a mixed bag at best. Lotto Fever tries to have this creeping in 80s vibe in the verse that just doesn't work and makes it sound dated. It isn't until you hit the pre-chorus where the song improves. The keyboards then start to become a much more important and integral part of the song, and they actually work, unlike in the verse.
Lovers of Loving Love is probably the last really strong song on the record, a very melodic song that shows a lot of growth for the band artistically. (Again, no, I'm not kidding) Again, the keyboard adds a lot to the song and it's structure, and the driving music will get you pogoing in no time.
It's after that song where the album starts blending in and seems to become one song. Chemical Bomb, hmmm, let's just say I'd be being nice if I called that glorified lounge music. The Man With Glooey Hands completely does not fit this band musically. And when you hit Monsters Wedding, you'll literally wonder if it's Chemical Bomb being given a reprise.
And while both Amino Man and Canis Lupus are ok, they certainly don't save this album from the waters of mediocrity. My advice? Find this used, don't pay full price for it. It's certainly not worth $15 or so.
NOTE:The Aquabats will release the follow up to this record on November 7th. It's entitled The Aquabats in Myths, Legends, and Other Amazing Adventures Volume 2. Floating Eye is subtitled And Other Amazing Adventures Volume 1.
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