The Aquabats! vs. The Floating Eye of Death! and Other Amazing Adventures, Vol. 1 (often shortened to Vs. the Floating Eye of Death!) is the third studio album from American band The Aquabats

The Aquabats

The Aquabats are an American rock band formed in 1994 in Orange County, California. They have released five full-length studio albums and have toured internationally. They are best known for their mythology, in which they claim to be superheroes on a quest to save the world from evil through music...

, released in 1999 on Goldenvoice Records.

Overview

In direct contrast to The Aquabats' previous albums, Floating Eye features none of the ska

Ska

Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...

 sound that the group had found mainstream success with, instead experimenting with the New Wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

-influenced pop punk

Pop punk

Pop punk is a fusion music genre that combines elements of punk rock with pop music, to varying degrees. Allmusic describes the genre as a strand of alternative rock, which typically merges pop melodies with speedy punk tempos, chord changes and loud guitars...

 formula the band would further develop on subsequent albums.

Floating Eye was the first Aquabats release featuring drummer Dr. Rock, as well as the last to feature lead guitar

Lead guitar

Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...

ist The Mysterious Kyu (formerly "The Ultra Kyu"). This was also the final Aquabats studio album to feature a horn section

Horn section

In music, a horn section can refer to several groups of musicians. It can refer to the musicians in a symphony orchestra who play the horn . In a British-style brass band it refers to the tenor horn players. In popular music, it can also refer to a small group of wind instrumentalists who augment a...

.

Reception

Steve Huey of Allmusic gave The Aquabats vs. the Floating Eye of Death! four stars out of five, saying "Sure, the humor is frothy and avoids substance like the plague, but anybody expecting anything else from a typical third-wave ska album is waging a pointless battle. Better to just hang on and enjoy the ride, because the Aquabats conduct that ride with a panache few other third-wavers can match, and their songwriting skills continue to improve with each record."

Track listing

All songs written by The Aquabats, except where noted otherwise.

The Aquabats

• The MC Bat Commander
  The MC Bat Commander
  Christian Richards Jacobs is an American musician, television producer, voice actor and former child actor. He is known for his work as the founder and lead singer of the Orange County rock band The Aquabats and as the co-creator of the popular Nick Jr...
  
   - vocals
• Crash McLarson
  Crash McLarson
  Chad Larson is an American musician, best known as the co-founder and bass guitarist for the Orange County rock band The Aquabats, of which he performs under the stage name and persona of Crash McLarson.-Biography:...
  
   - bass, vocals
• Catboy - trumpet, vocals
• The Robot
  Jimmy The Robot
  James Randall Briggs is an American musician, best known for his dual role as keyboardist and saxophonist for the Orange County rock band The Aquabats, of which he performs under the stage name and persona of Jimmy the Robot....
  
   - woodwinds, keyboards, vocals
• The Mysterious Kyu - guitar
• Prince Adam - synthesizers, trumpet
• Chainsaw Karate - guitar
• Doctor Rock (Gabe Palmer) - drums

Production

• Produced, engineered and mixed by Thom Wilson
  Thom Wilson
  -Thom Wilson:Thom Wilson is a now-retired American punk rock record producer and engineer.-Career:Wilson began his musical career in the mid-1970s, engineering recordings by soft rock artits Burton Cummings and Seals & Crofts. He began working on punk rock albums in the early 1980s while producing...
  
  
• Tracks 3, 5 and 13 produced, engineered and mixed by Cameron Webb
• Recorded in NRG Studios, Ocean Studios, and Citrus College, all in California
  California
  California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
  
  .
• Mastered by Eddy Schreyer