700 Eels - Beautiful Freak (1996)

 700 Eels - Beautiful Freak (1996)

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 first album released under the name Eels, and was mostly the work of E. One song (My Beloved Monster and Me) was featured in the film Shrek.

My History with this Album:

I've had a copy of this for a long while now, actually about 20 years I think. I discovered Eels through MTV in the late 90s/early 00s, and this album is the one I have played most. 

Review:

When this came out, Alternative Rock was only just really heading in this direction, and the sound was unusual. It's a cross between electronica, almost hip-hop with the use of samples, but combined with real instruments and other sounds like music boxes and glockenspiels, and wheezy organs, and twitchy electronic sounds. This is combined with quite plummy electric guitar with tremolo, but sometimes overdriven guitars. The production is all about textures, and it switches fast from quiet to loud. Musically it's pretty normal, it's the production that combines lo-fi with post-rock and electronica, and man I sound pretentious referencing these things. Let's just say that it's a bit freaky, and often quite beautiful. And hard to pigeonhole.

So that's one thing I like about it, I like the sound and the feel of it. At times it's melancholy, sometimes more upbeat, always with a sense of being a bit broken.

And that describes the songs also, the lyrical content, which is almost entirely about being a bit broken, or at least being a bit unusual, being outside the mainstream. It's well-observed, and at times intensely vulnerable. It's full of feeling and pathos, and has some moments that are quite moving. Mental health is a strong theme. Possibly my favourite song is "Susan's House", talking about the things he is seeing on the way to Susan's house, a list of tragic things. I also love "My Beloved Monster", I'm not really sure what the intent is, but it's a great image. The music would have been enough to make me like it, but the songs are just excellent, very real, not preachy, just expressive.

You can tell I love it. As I listened for this review, I was surprised by how familiar I am with it. It came into my life about the time that my music collection started to grow faster than my ability to get familiar with everything, so I must have chosen to play it quite a lot. It's been quite a private album for me, as it is quite melancholy and has a couple of strong swears, but some of these songs are some of the best expression I know of feeling on the outskirts of society, and of some mental health issues, and yet there is still hope in here. Not a lot, but enough.

8.6/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7sqwuxORaCogFGgygafdSt

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdqgzfybzvw-K33vXXp4jysqV_MXTEWSy

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Freak



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