Musical Monday #18

I first heard the Eels with their debut single Novocaine for the Soul -- although I understand that singer/songwriter E had a couple of solo albums before this. It seems strange to me now that he would release solo albums under his own name, and then form a band which seems to just be a solo project. But anyway.

The song appealed to the angsty teen in me -- with lyrics like "this paint-by-numbers life is fucking with my head", the Beautiful Freak album as a whole was sad and tortured, but at the same time strangely catchy. The songs would get in your head, or lines from them would just stand out -- even today I still use the line "one day the world will be ready for you, and wonder how they didn't see".

Their second album, Electro-shock Blues was much darker -- E's mother was diagnosed with cancer, and his sister committed suicide. The albums content reflected these events, but it was more mature than its predecessor and to my mind the songwriting improved. The themes might have been difficult, but songs like Cancer for the Cure and Last Stop: This Town remain catchy and accessible. For me, the best song on the album is the insanely-catchy Hospital Food, which is far more upbeat than it really should be.

"If Electro-Shock Blues was the phone call in the middle of the night that the world doesn't want to answer, then Daisies of the Galaxy is the hotel wake-up call that says your lovely breakfast is ready". The follow-up album Daisies of the Galaxy was disarmingly cheerful, for me it lacked some of the depth of the last album, but songs like Mr E's Beautiful Blues are the kind of song I need to listen to more often, with it's repeated line "Goddamn right, it's a beautiful day".

From there, Eels sort of lost their edge for me. They released the much darker Souljacker, but all I ever really heard from the album was the mournful Woman Driving, Man Sleeping -- once put on an indie compilation tape for me by a girl named Kath. The mention of her name makes me pause, she needs a whole post sometime.

Most recently, Eels released an album that I saw described as containing 10 of the best songs they had ever made, but unfortunately the album also contained 22 other songs that weren't quite as great, so it could be hard to find them... As ever I guess with these bands is there's a certain time and a certain place, and in that moment you're left with a feeling like "yes, that's it, exactly". Later your paths go in different directions, and sometimes you're a little sad about it -- but you always have one song that you love, and it makes you happy for a little while.

With this in mind, today's song isn't Novocaine for the Soul or Cancer for the Cure, but instead Mr E's Beautiful Blues.