Review Summary: Poppy, catchy and flavoured by E's wit known and loved by many. A brilliant abeit short album.
E, what can be said about him? One review border calls him the grandfather of babyfreaks with broken hearts. An apt description perhaps if you dug the eels, this will be right up your street. Personally I've been a big fan of eels since 1996 when they released beautiful freak, this is however his first album. Working Parthenon Huxley and Jim Lang among other names familiar to eels fans. Sorry, fans of Butch but he isn't here at this point at this point. In any case I have one of E's solo albums to get and if this one has taught me anything it's definitely bother to get it.
E plays drums, percussion, electric & acoustic guitar, Hammond B3, keyboard, harmonica, piano and toy piano in this album though other musicians are involved here. Huxley plays bass, as well as acoustic and electric guitars, percussion and he snaps his fingers. Jim Lang supports the album on the WHAT? Accordion? I've seen everything now, the Eels have a tendency for using a diverse set of instruments but I've never seen them use an accordion before! Lang also plays Hammond B3, piano, keyboards and here's another great one, a cuckoo clock. Jennifer Condos contributes by playing the bass guitar. Eric Williams plays the mandolin on track 5 and Danny Davis Jr.is the final musician mentioned by name on this album, he plays an electric guitar on track 3.
Right then, down to the music. This field of music might seem strange to eels fans but rest assured it grows on you fast. It's a indie/ pop album where E makes full use of his sardonic wit. This is especially true on track 4 (Looking out the window with a blue hat on) funny if slightly cliched where he says
"Find me a sky high cliff,
just let me try,
to jump right off,
Maybe I'll fly".
There are other classic lines that are arguably funnier but to say them all would be a skyscraper sized spoiler.
. And there are also several songs that sound, lyrically, like preludes to beautiful freak. Again this is especially prevelant in one track, that being track 7 (mockingbird franklin), a keyboard based track where E goes on to say "Mockingbird, don't you change..." the follow on is good but it won't really seem all that relevant just picking up from there. Another great one eels fans will love from the start it's 'hello cruel world' Don't go in thinking it will sound like 'Novacaine for the soul' because nothing could be further from the truth but optimising the use of the elaborate instrumentation to create a full but catchy sound, this is a gem of E's musical career in its own right.
If there's one thing I've noticed about quite a few reviews on here it's that they don't tell you what the singer sounds like. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mr. E. His voice isn't great in the traditional sense in that it isn't particularly mellifluous, it's more grungy (if that is an acceptable term, it may be a neologism, I'm not sure) but it is unique in a good way, besides there isn't really a point to listening to things that all sound the same, is there?
Oh, I realise I've related to eels fans nearly all the way through this review but this album is extremely accessible (musically) though to be quite frank I had to hunt it down like an SOAB to get it. I consider my efforts more than rewarded and then I got the internet (sigh).
There is only one relatively weak track on this album for me and that was track 3. It was fairly nauseating.
That was the only reason I wouldn't rate it a classic. Most of the songs are really catchy and uplifting and although it's only just over half an hour long, it will be a log time before you get sick of listening to it. Hell, I've had it almost 5 years and it's still almost always in my stereo.
