Music Review: Eve 6 and The Marvelous 3

February 12, 1999
Daniel J. Katz
The Tech

The Marvelous 3, who will open the show, are another power pop trio beginning to get heavy airplay for their insanely infectious single, Freak of The Week. The rest of the just-released album (Hey! Album, Hi Fi/Electra) combines some catchy riffs with British sounding vocals (although the band is from Atlanta), and some new wave-ish guitar and keyboard work. (Listening to the synthesizer vamp in the chorus of "#27," you can't help but think it must have been recorded in 1985.)

A number of songs on the album could easily follow the success of Freak. Write It On Your Hand is an obvious contender, as is the opening track, You're So Yesterday, which is a perfect example of what sets the Marvelous 3 apart from Eve 6; even when they sing bitter lyrics to an ex-girlfriend ("So keep reading your books on how to give dirty looks"), they still keep the mood of the music upbeat. While the vocalists for Eve 6 wallow in melodramatic despair on some songs, the Marvelous 3 keep their songs happy, catchy, and enjoyable, values pop music used to be all about.

Hey! Album goes in other directions that Eve 6 doesn't. Until You See and Let Me Go are slow, soaring ballads, a pop standard virtually ignored by Eve 6. The cascading guitar part in Every Monday, one of the album's best tracks, melts over you, leading up to an aggressive moment on the guitar before it starts all over again. And at the end of the last song there's some amusing evidence that Butch Walker, the band's lead singer, has a potential career as a beat poet.

Eve 6 has mastered the technique of manufacturing the hit song. The Marvelous 3 are still playing around with the format, and while they're not quite as streamlined, they show a lot more depth. Together, their concert may not require you to think very hard, but you'll be humming for hours after you leave.