833 Eels - Electro-Shock Blues (1998)

Studio album - Alternative Rock

About the Act:

Eels (definitely not THE Eels) are an alternative rock band from L.A. They were formed in 1991 and are still going and have had 13 studio albums. Their front-man singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Everett goes by the stage name E and is the only person to have been in the whole duration of the band. He also released a couple of albums as a solo artist, although the distinction at times is moot, there have been times when he was the only member of Eels.

About the Album:

This was the second album by Eels, who at the time were E and drummer Butch Norton.

My History with this Album:

In the late 90s I watched some MTV, and that was how I discovered Eels, and that I really liked their music. I have had, I think three of their albums since then and this was one. It was not the one I played most, but I am pretty familiar with it. It was not until reading up that I found that "Elizabeth" from the first song was E's sister, who was institutionalised and subsequently took her own life. Also, around the same time, his mother had terminal lung cancer. Also, in 1982 E was the one who found his father's body, dead from a heart attack. The album is about these things, and about being the last living member of his family.

Review:

Describing Eels is difficult, unless you go for the obvious, but unhelpful "long, wriggly fish". I guess words like "lo-fi" and "post-rock" could be employed, and "sampling". It's kind of a cross between slow electronica, alternative rock, chamber rock (using things like cellos) with quite a bit of rock organ, and then decorated with tinkly things like tambourines or music box sounds. That might give you an idea, but it's really very varied, as if genre conventions mean nothing to them (they probably don't) and they just explore sounds and textures that suit what they want to portray. I would claim that in this they are very good, often surprising, musically, or at least with the choice of sounds. The actual, you know, tunes and chords are quite "normal", although to give them more credit than that "deceptively simple" might apply.

That kind of encompasses Eels, or at least Eels at the time (I don't know later albums). This album is particularly dark, although now knowing the context I can see why. In fact knowing the context and listening to the lyrics they make more sense. It's an interesting darkness and in fact you could say that most of the songs are different shades of that darkness, dark reds, greens, and of course blues. They are varied, thoughtful, interesting and quite deep, despite a tendency for the actual lyrics to be about the mundane. Possibly because of it.

E growls his way through, a bit like Lou Reed or Mark Knopfler. It's not a pretty voice but effective.

All in all, it's a great album.

8.6/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6SZeOhypPklZ2oLywHluyS

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCx_l3FfC444Cu1BqnewSTaTRsh9Bp9n8

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro-Shock_Blues