Eels

Electro-Shock Blues

Forget religion, alcohol, junk food, Eels'll get you through

Review Score:

(10/10)
"Waking up is harder when you wanna die" notes Mark 'E' Everitt on Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor, one of many tracks on the second Eels album to deal with the suicide of his sister Elizabeth. In fact E lost his mum and sister within months (like another famous person I could name- E deserves to be on the Â£5 notes much more though. And it's literally just occurred to me that the Queen Mum and E's sister were both called Elizabeth- spooky)

The whole thing is quite catharthic, with tracks like My Descent Into Madness, Hospital Food and Baby Genius, a seemingly literal look at the difficulties faces by anyone who's "too good for this world" (its no conincidence that so many of these choose to escape the confines of this world). But this is one album to which a random set of MP3s do not do justice, you have to have the real thing to get the full pleasure, for 2 reasons. It works best as a flowing album, more on why in a moment. But the inlay has some wonderful pieces of artwork, especially a cartoon loosely based on Baby Genius which is subtly revolutionary yet cautiously post-modern semi-ironic. It all combines to take you through the sights and sounds of the world of a tragic genius.

And they've saved the best for last, as light peers through the gloom with the heavenly PS You Rock My World. A subtly upbeat yet ironic track cut from the same cloth as the classic Mr E's Beautiful Blues, which encapsulates everything in one sentance "I was thinking about how everyone is dying, so maybe its time I started to live". An hour on the couch with E and you'll believe that man can cope with anything.

How good is this album? I'd want to own it even if it was by the Queen, and I'm no lover of the Royals.

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