hello it's me dozens i am going to be live blogging me listening to the eels' entire discography ready? here we go BEAUTIFUL FREAK, 1996 ===================== TRACK 1: NOVOCAINE FOR THE SOUL introducing mark oliver everett! the opening track of the first album. this track endures as one of his finest. it has all the hallmarks of a great eels album: despair and depression wrapped up in a peppy, boppy little package. i think it was E himself who said about Daniel Jonhnston something that i think perfectly describes all of his own music: "his songs are just -er. his happy songs are happier. his sad songs are sadder." that's how i feel about E's songwriting, and it's why he's one of my favorites of all time. TRACK 2: SUSAN'S HOUSE i remember this one being played on mtv2 and on the college radio station. an anomaly in his catalog. he's never done anything else that sounds like this with its rambling narrative. for some reason it calls to mind Poe's "Angry Johnny" which got air time around the same time. Poe's brother is Mark Danielewski, who wrote the experimental horror novel *House of Leaves* TRACK 4: BEAUTIFUL FREAK also hallmark eels a twisted and dark love song that is just really pretty with its toy piano sounds he's just so earnest, with eyes wide open TRACK 5: NOT READY YET also look at this! he can go from *beautiful freak*, where he's in love with how ugly and weird the world is to this track, where he's too afraid and overwhelmed by the world to even go outside. this whole album really sets the scene for the next couple of albums. this album introduces E as a neurotic and slightly depressed individual who still sees beauty in the world. The next album, *Electroshock Blues* sees him at his absolute worst. And the next one, *Daisys of the Galaxy* sees him on his road to recovery. TRACK 6: MY BELOVED MONSTER hi shrek fans if you only know a single eels song, this might be the one you know this is one of the cornerstones of E's live performances he's bored as hell of playing it straight by now and sometimes plays it as though it was a hard rock metal screamer. sometimes it's a country music ballad. sometimes it's a organ driven 1960s psyadellic romp i consider this song a direct follow up to the previous *beautiful freak* TRACK 7: FLOWER commiserating with god: everyone is trying to bum me out. poor guy, he's trying so hard. I think that in later songs he warps this kind of despair into a manic kind defiance: everybody's trying to bum me out, but fuck 'em, and i'll be damned if i let 'em get to me. you'll see this attitude evolve more in *Shootenany!* TRACK 9: MENTAL "they say i'm mental, but i've been abused" a little on the nose forgot about the sick theramin solo at the end though lol TRACK 10: SPUNKY forgot how pretty this one is i feel like the thesis of E's early stuff is how innocence is fucking sad because it is destined and determined to be destroyed by the big bad world so you have little snapshots like this that are pretty but tinged with sadness TRACK 11: YOUR LUCKY DAY IN HELL you're born and then you die and in between you suffer E at his most bleak TRACK 12: MANCHILD ooh haunting, i'm pretty sure the "I'm not having any fun" voice at the beginning is his sister Elizabeth Elizabeth at this point is struggling with mental illness and is going through elecroshock therapy she eventually commits suicide and i'm pretty sure both his parents die around the same time hence the title, subject, and tone of the next album but this track while Elizabeth is still alive, and to hear her voice man so heartbreaking CONCLUSION well i'm definitely crying a little bit at the end of manchild i had forgotten about it this album definitely hints at what E is going to be getting up to during his next couple albums he's going to grow a lot over the years both musically and also as a person and as a survivor of loss but also at the same time, he really showed up as himself all the ingredients are here and he's going to continue to riff on them over the years ELECTRO-SHOCK BLUES, 1998 ========================= INTRODUCTION okay the last album ended with elizabeth, E's sister, lamenting "i want to be happy; i'm just not happy" this album deals with the subject matter of Elizabeth's mental illness, treatment, and eventual suicide. also his mother's cancer and death, and the death of his father. over the course of a year or so, E went from having a family to being basically alone in the world. this album is a total downer and a major bummer and is a case study in grief and resilience TRACK 1: ELIZABETH ON THE BATHROOM FLOOR "my name is elizabeth my life is shit and piss" must have been so hard to write this :( painful to lose his sister and then also painful to try to get inside her messed up head enough to write from her perspective TRACK 2: GOING TO YOUR FUNERAL the plodding, monotonous beat of this song like you're just struggling to put one foot in front of the other and just make it through the day TRACK 4: MY DESCENT INTO MADNESS very pretty strings on this song not-so-clever wordplay with "springfield's looking pretty dusty" and "the jacket makes me straight" perhaps the occurance of E's "maniacal ego as a coping mechanism" with: "Come visit me tonight at eight o'clock and then you'll see i'm not the crazy one... the voices tell me i'm the shit" TRACK 5: THREE SPEED the 3-speed is a symbol of childhood innocence but again with the repeated refrain of "why won't you just tell me what's going on" there is the implication that there's no such thing as innocence and that instead there's just ignorance about how shitty the world is but even that is questioned because the kid in this song knows something's going on even if they don't know what not even innocence can be enjoyed it's tainted TRACK 6: HOSPITAL FOOD this one and *cancer for the cure* (track 3) are weird songs i feel like they're only here because E is obsessesed with cancer and hospitals and death right now and in that case they're not weird they fit the theme of the album i guess i mean to say that they're not standout tracks and the only thing they have going for them is that they're thematically on point. and they rock out pretty well but i don't remember E playing these live ever TRACK 7: ELECTRO-SHOCK BLUES elizabeth had electro-shock therapy before she finally killed herself see this short, simple track stands out in contrast to *hospital food* and *cancer for the cure* it's simple and effective whereas those others feel written to fill out space on the album they're good, i'm not complaining but they pale in comparison to the tracks written from elizabeth's perspective TRACK 8: EFILS' GOD spoiler: it's "Dog's life" backwards which is what this song is it's *Dog's Life* played backwards with new vocals over it this song is about somebody literally dying while on painkillers ("Efil's Good" = "It Feels Good") TRACK 10: LAST STOP THIS TOWN a spiritual successor of sorts to *My Beloved Monster* with the toy organ and the funny voices this is one of my most favorite Eels songs it's a banger and is kind of sad but also hopeful TRACK 11: BABY GENIUS this is allegedly about E's father who is actually a famous astrophysicist or something who invented the Many Worlds theory of the multiverse E actually made a documentary about him at some point he was a weird and emotionally stunted man he died of a heart attack and E found his body just yet another instance of super trauma TRACK 12: CLIMBING UP TO THE MOON another elizabeth song a nurse who is stealing her letters and she's starting to lose track of who she is because of the hospital treatment and is unsure of who she's becoming and is afraid she's losing her mind TRACK 13: ANT FARM "i hate a lot of things but i love a few things and you are one of them" E had a weird relationship with his mom and this is about loving her in spite of it all but at the same time feeling super alienated from the world: "walking down the street i'm thinking look at all the ants in a farm i've got a sad hearted feeling to do harm" TRACK 14: DEAD OF WINTER another dead mom / cancer song this is an interesting one because i think it's great even though it lacks any subtlety like *cancer for cure* and *hospital food* but it makes up for it by being an earnest and sorrowful portrayal of ending ending up in the dark but refusing to fade away TRACK 15: THE MEDICATION IS WEARING OFF waking up and arriving in the aftermath of the death of your entire family to suicide, heart attack, and cancer there's just so much pain and bewilderment and fear here TRACK 16: PS YOU ROCK MY WORLD how does E decide to wrap up this absolute bummer of an album? with the faintest glimmer of hope "i was thinking about how everybody's dying and maybe it's time to live" CONCLUSION so yeah that's the story of how E's entire family died it's painful and raw and he gives us an honest glimpse into his mind and into his sister's mind and despite it all he decides to endure and carry on the emotions here are so strong they can really pull you in and drag you under DAISIES OF THE GALAXY, 2000 =========================== INTRODUCTION okay you almost have to listen to Daisies as a palate cleanser fter listening to Electro-Shock Blues. E's quote about these two albums is something like ESB being a frightening phone call you receive in the middle of the night, and Daisies is the wake-call in the morning telling you your breakfast is ready. TRACK 1: GRACE KELLY BLUES love this song this kind of sets the tone for this album as a follow up to *Blues*: "but me I'm doing pretty good as of now I'm not so sure when i got here or how sun melting the fake smile away i think you know i'll be okay" i like it was about losing the fake smile. this says to me that he's learning acceptance instead of covering things up the next track follows up on this... TRACK 2: PACKING BLANKETS continuing with cleaning house "packing blankets and dirty sheets a room full of dust and a broom to sweep up all the troubles you and i have seen" time to clean up, heal, and move on TRACK 3: SOUND OF FEAR love that funky organ music "Next time if you think of it you might remember me as the one let you down but never made another sound of fear" there's a lot to unpack in this chorus he's admitting to being fragile and unreliable when he acknowledges that he let the listener down but also there's a determination and strength because he refuses to ever again indulge in or succumb to his fear TRACK 4: I LIKE BIRDS hey look, a completely uncomplicated happy song! i'm proud of you E. you seem to be doing well. this is another one that E has fun with live he has played as an absolute screamer which is funny TRACK 5: DAISIES OF THE GALAXY the name of this track (and of this album) come from E finding some flowers growing in the cracks of the sidewalk outside the Galaxy Theater this motif shows up again later in *Daisy Through Concrete* this is about escaping difficulties for a while by watching a movie and taking comfort from some pretty flowers "I'll pick some daisies from the flower bed of the galaxy theater while you clear your head i thought some daisies might cheer you up" TRACK 6: FLYSWATTER a fucking rock song that isn't about dying or being dead i always liked the bells on this song TRACK 7: IT'S A MOTHERFUCKER this is a straightforward love song about missing somebody who's not there this song was also for some reason singled out by Tipper Gore during her crusade to save America's youth from explicit rock music making it very clear that she never actually listened to this beautiful song also one time steve perry, lead singer of Journey surprised everybody by coming out on stage and singing this song i think you can find the video on youtube TRACK 9: TIGER IN MY TANK this is about reaching a breaking point with commercialism and capitalism and rock-n-roll culture from buying "rock star ashes from the back of rolling stone" to the reference to the old-timey sales slogan of "put a tiger in your tank" it's all about buying up stuff and keeping up appearances and selling out and consequently feeling sick of it and being "on the brink of disaster" TRACK 10: DAISY THROUGH CONCRETE here we are at the follow up to *daisies of the galaxy* a flower growing in concrete is a classic image of resilience and perseverance this song is relentlessly upbeat. side story: he sings about "walking down Sycamore Street" so my grandmother used to live in the country on a street with no name and then the city said they had to have a street name they decided on Sycamore Street because they liked it and thought it was pretty but when they came to put up the sign it said SEYMOUR STREET and grandma was pissed about that ugly name until the day she died TRACK 11: JEANNIE'S DIARY aw, i forgot about this one just a straight up love song kind of an evolution of sorts of *Beautiful Freak* when he confesses that "she has a dark side too, even murderous" E really likes those troubled girls TRACK 12: WOODEN NICKELS I always considered this a sort of companion piece to *tiger in my tank* because its name also comes from an antiquated saying "don't take any wooden nickels when you sell your soul" TRACK 13: SOMETHING IS SACRED hoo boy this one always gets me hauntingly beautiful i'm not always sure where E is going with this one to be honest he seems to think he's far too capable of becoming homeless or mentally ill, but is uncomfortable when people cry and thinks they look funny. and then he's chilled by seeing "nothing" in the killer's eyes i don't know, i guess he's just seeing all these things that he's kind of scared of when he looks at people but then he sees the eyes of his love and is comforted that actually tracks for E TRACK 15: MR. E'S BEAUTIFUL BLUES hey eurotrip fans if you only know one Eels song, it might be this one allegedly E wrote this song under great duress and because of pressure from his record label who wanted one more happy song for the album it was featured in the movie eurotrip and the music video features the actors from the movie E hated it fucking banger of a song though CONCLUSION well okay! that's E's first 3 albums the DESPAIR AND RECOVERY trilogy i was obsessed with all these albums when they came out and they can still make me feel tons of emotions the next two albums are *Souljacker* and *Shootenany!* and they're kind of a packaged deal two straight forward rock albums without as much of the personal confessional songs as the first 3 albums have *Daisies* is just such a special album coming on the tail of *Blues* such a triumph SOULJACKER, 2002 ================ souljacker is a weird album it's the first one E wrote that isn't anchored by death or loss or recovering from death and loss consequently it is narratively all over the place there are carnival side-show characters, some supernatural killers and some weird incest, a jungle adventure, a friendly ghost, and a teenage witch it's like E finally got to a place where he had room in his head for things that aren't trauma, and so he just poured out all his weird fucking ideas that he hadn't had time for in the previous however many years 1. DOG FACED BOY semi-autobiographical because around this time E started growing a beard that grows up to his eyeballs and that eventually grew to ZZ-Top lengths the later album *Hombre Lobo* will trace its lineage directly back to this song highlight lyric: "Ma won't shave me Jesus can't save Dog Faced Boy" 2. THAT'S NOT REALLY FUNNY a song about getting all defensive about having a small penis? very experimental composition for E which will continue later in *Jungle Telegraph* 3. FRESH FEELING E's personal brand of love song is often about being in awe of the subject of his affections this is one of his best takes on it. it lacks all of the "I love you because/despite the fact that you're ugly and weird" backhandedness of his previous love songs. and it predicts some of his late "I'm actually really healthy and well-adjusted now" works. 4. WOMAN DRIVING MAN SLEEPING this is an odd one it evokes feelings of longing the imagery of a man just sleeping and dreaming while the woman drives and carries him presumably toward some kind of future says a lot about dependence and possibly taking advantage of the woman in his life 5. SOULJACKER PART 1 so sally and johnny are fucking right? "sisters brothers make better lovers family affair down under the covers" and johnny maybe grows up to be the eponymous souljacker? actually it is true that E had some sexual hangups about his sister he admits as much in his book which i'm sure is only possible for him after many years and lots of therapy a banger of a song that maybe you shouldn't think to hard about? 6. FRIENDLY GHOST by 2002, E had definitely heard of and was a fan of Daniel Jonhnston who incorporated Casper the Friendly Ghost into a lot of his work E would later contribute *Living Life* to *The Late Great Daniel Johnston*, an amazing album of covers from the likes of Tom Waits, Beck, Sparklehorse, and The Flaming Lips 7. TEENAGE WITCH i think E is just continuing with his outsider songs here after Dog Faced Boy and Friendly Ghost now we're looking through the eyes of the Teenage Witch who is struggling to get along but also hexxing people 8. BUS STOP BOXER i think this is literally about a guy who punches people at the bus stop? just the latest in the string of wacky characters in this album 9. JUNGLE TELEGRAPH the most surreal we get on this album even after ghosts and witches "Send me lovin Send it now Send it by giraffe Or Jungle Telegraph" 10. WORLD OF SHIT follow up fresh feeling and spiritual successor to *It's a Motherfucker* "Daddy was a troubled genius Mama was a real good egg" more autobiography here which is kind of funny because it adds E himself to the cast of freaks and monsters on this album. 11. SOULJACKER PART 2 so after whatever the hell souljacker 1 was now we have some kind of warding song to keep the souljacker away "hang my neck from the old flagpole but souljacker can't get my soul" CONCLUSION this album is kind of a mess lol i forgot what a disjointed procession of freaks and weirdos it is there are some far out tunes on here KIND OF framed by souljackers 1 and 2 which themselves hardly bare any resemblence to each other it's a good album and a fun time but the feeling is that E simply didn't know what to do with himself when not surrounded by death and dying SHOOTENANNY! 2003 ================= The second album in the Souljacker / Shoonenanny! duology. This is some of E's abssolute best work and is the best straight up rock album that Eels has ever released. So many stand out tracks. It has all the hallmarks of an Eels album: longing, despair, and suffering and it packages it all up and sends it right over the edge E allegedly took a week off from writing/recording *Blinking Lights* and recorded this album in a week 1. ALL IN A DAY'S WORK a blues rock song about a dirty scoundrel that sets the tone for this knock down drag out rocker of an album 2. SATURDAY MORNING perfectly captures the freedom and restless energy of childhood unbridled joy 3. THE GOOD OLD DAYS i love this song it's kind of a self-deprecating love song where E puts himself in his place in the opening lines: "i know i'm not too much of a bargain you know that's not what you bargained for" otherwise very sweet and i think all the time about how 'these are the good old days' "it's up to you and me and who's to say these could be the good old days" also for some reason this line always resonated with me "i guess i could be a quiet hero no one knows the good i've done" it is very similar to a line from *Same Boy You've Always Known* by the White Stripes: "And if there's anything good about me I'm the only one who knows" i guess i like sad, sorrowful, pitiful characters who suffer alone and in silence very tragic, how romantic 4. LOVE OF THE LOVELESS more being sad, solitary, and pitiful but being kind of happy and content about it? he's content with being alone he's a loveless scoundrel but the love of the loveless is a comforting thing to have also i love the consistent sound on this album for some reason it sounds like it was recorded in his basement 5. DIRTY MOUTH jaunty little love song i love the line about wondering if she's dying her hair back to brown 6. AGONY a real wailer what a scoundrel! so alone! so pitiful! why is this kind of song so extremely my jam? ah the pains of love A+ 7. ROCK HARD TIMES this is the best hard luck, trying-to-rise-above, anguished, rebel without a cause, scornful, they'll-be-sorry, do anything for love song there is flawless execution i just love nearly every track on this album no gimmicks, no smoke no mirrors just straight up heart felt songs straight from the heart 8. RESTAINING ORDER BLUES so tragic! so misunderstood! 9. LONE WOLF so alone! so pitiful! i need to step back and say that i am entertained by these sad, pitiful songs but i don't necessarily relate to them and anybody who idolizes the protagonist in these songs probably also likes Holden Caufield and Arthur Fleck by the way if you look up arthur fleck on the batman wiki it says, "Alignment: Bad (Formerly Good)" which is hilarious 10. WRONG ABOUT BOBBY okay this "Better get out of my way" song is the one i was thinking about way back on *My Descent Into Madness* when I mentioned a maniacal ego here the protagonist is a super macho man and goes cruising and bruising through life and damn them if anybody is in his way 11. NUMBERED DAYS this one is always gets me in the feels it's addressed to "Daisy" which might be a reference to *Daisies of the Galaxy* first of all it sounds super pretty and it tells the story of somebody who knows they have to leave their troubled girlfriend it's just matter of (numbered) days it kind of foreshadows *Line In The Dirt* on a later album which tells a similar story 12. FASHION SHOW the odd song out doesn't go with the rest of the album i don't really know what it's doing here. aside from the fact that the singer threatens to blow off his head in despair if he doesn't win an award, or is treated unfairly, or if he loses his bus fair. or apparently for any reason at all 13. SOMEBODY LOVES YOU this is another one that just sounds good it's kind of grotesque and also really uplifting? very fun to sing along with the singer alternates between crippling depression and uncompromising determination to continue "you gotta be sure when you turn out the light that it's going to turn on again you've got to be your good friend" i think the message here is that you gotta take care of yourself because nobody else is gonna CONCLUSION okay that's the end of the Souljacker / Shootenanny! duo Shootenanny is a fucking good album. it's full of big sad wailers and super macho swagger and it's really fun to sing along to. okay get excited because up next is Blinking Lights BLINKING LIGHTS AND OTHER REVELATIONS, 2005 =========================================== this album is the pivot of E's career it is his magnum opus everything he's done is divided into before and after two discs of E at his most introspective and retrospective this is around the time that he wrote his memoirs *Things the grandchildren should know* and also started touring as EELS WITH STRINGS and did some fancy ass shows including the one recorded at Royal Albert Hall which is a very good live album 2. FROM WHENCE I CAME / A MAGIC WORLD if you don't know where to start a story consider the beginning E is born 3. SON OF A BITCH i don't think this song is totally autobiographical but i do know that this verse was entirely about his dad "the wrong look his way could really wreck his day and believe me when i say it could wreck your day too" 4. BLINKING LIGHTS (FOR ME) a pretty little 'everything will be okay' song about being afraid of flying 5. TROUBLE WITH DREAMS the trouble with dreams is they don't come true ... you know i've got an awful lot of big dreams the first three tracks on this albums are short little vignettes and this is the first time we get some real breathing room have a seat and stretch out take advantage of the space case in point: 6. MARIE FLOATING OVER THE BACKYARD a pretty little instrumental a pause and a promise E is going to take his time with this album we have two discs a real journey ahead of us but don't worry there will be little rest stops along the way 7. SUICIDE LIFE "you think you'll get under old Mr's lid and try to imagine all the things he did" in fact i do not know what E is thinking in this song the chorus is ambiguous to me it sounds like he's fed up with 'living the suicide life' and wants to get better but also says that 'that ain't no reason to live' as though he's throwing in the towel i think the point is that you can really never know somebody's mind possibly not even your own and i know E has spent most of his life trying to make sense of his sister's suicide 8. IN THE YARD BEHIND THE CHURCH it's about making out in the graveyard but not in a goth kind of way it's really sweet E seems contemplative here death isn't scary to him it's a state of forgiveness where 'it no longer matters where you've been' 9. RAILROAD MAN "i feel like an old railroad man who's really tied the best that he can to make his life add up to something good but this engine no longer runs no wood" being a man out of time antiquated, obsolete, and old fashioned E really doesn't feel at home in this world right now 10. THE OTHER SHOE first of all fun rocker of a song fun to yell along with the WOOOs at the end the imagery of stink and garbage and trucks is pretty visceral everybody literally sleeping thinking life will be okay but E knows they'll 'soon wake up to the stink' the stench of death and tragedy has permeated everything in E's life and he can no longer feel content that something awful isn't about to happen 11. LAST TIME WE SPOKE sad sorrowful pitiful did you even hear that sad dog howling at the beginning? "nothing hurts like someone who knows everything about you leaving you behind" sad sad sad 12. MOTHER MARY i actually have no idea what's going on with this song it's another song of alienation and isolation maybe letting go of mother mary 'so quick' is a religious thing or maybe a literal mother figure some source of comfort either way probably something religious to be honest e had said at some point that this whole album is about his relationship with god fun groovy organ playing here 13. GOING FETAL this one is super fun the duck quacking throughout? wacky and it features old golden throat himself mister tom waits e said that after the agreed to collaborate he had mailed tom with instructions on what he needed from him but what he got back was just recordings of slamming doors and screaming into the recorder which is why all you get from him here is just him going HEYYYY what a mad lad 14. UNDERSTANDING SALESMEN a song about dad 15. THEME FOR A PRETTY GIRL THAT MAKES YOU BELIEVE GOD EXISTS another pretty musical interlude 16. CHECKOUT BLUES it's not about grocery shopping "things won't get better until they get much worse is the curse stronger than me or am i stronger than the curse" e has a lot of survivor's guilt and is totally convinced he's going to die at any moment because of what happened to his family "heads up kittens everything is bad the sky is dark now but it's the best dark I ever had" i am a total sucker for 'everything is terrible but also it is okay' kind of writing there was in fact an episode of Welcome to Nightvale which is a campy Twilight Zone / horror podcast that did this so well it was the one with the blinking light on top of the mountain and there was an army of horrors marching on the town and total death and destruction was immenent but also for some reason it was totally okay that everybody was about to be torn to pieces i listened to that espisode on the way to a job that i hated at the time and i cried and cried 17. BLINKING LIGHTS (FOR YOU) one last instrumental piece for this disc a reprise and a bookend to *blinking lights (for me)* somebody reaching out to you when you're scared to tell you it's okay end of disc 1 1. DUST OF AGES I've never really loved dust of ages I know E does he's played it live a bunch of times it's got a mellow, defiant kind of vibe to it with its "I'm not fucking around any more" i have a memory of him probably from the Eels with Strings DVD chomping on a cigar and singing this song toward the beginning of the set kind of an anthem and kind of a middle finger to aging and growing old 2. OLD SHIT / NEW SHIT "everyone loves you nobody cares an awful collection of enemies and friends congratulations to you with sad regrets i'm tired of the old shit let the new shit begin" this song hits kind of hard there's no real difference between good shit and bad shit it's all just shit good stuff is gonna go bad bad stuff is gonna get better nothing changes but nothing stays the same 3. BRIDE OF THEME FROM BLINKING LIGHTS cute little instrumental piece i feel like you can tell that e wrote these pieces while imagining the kind of live performance he wanted to do a real dramatic troubadour on the stage with interludes and pauses between songs 4. HEY MAN (NOW YOU'RE REALLY LIVING) the sister song to *Going Fetal* I can't tell if the HEYs are tom waits again or it's just E immitating him this song suggests along with conventional wisdom that you can't really appreciate joy unless/until you have have experienced pain and i just don't know how much i believe in this i think because i'm just a contrarian and i don't appreciate being told that my experiences may be considered less than just because i haven't experienced that feeling's opposite to an appropriate degree on the other hand maybe i'm misunderstanding the whole thing it is the belief of the ancient stoics that the only "good" in the world is ones own character that is ones decision to act virtuously to honor your commitments etc and that everything else in the world is outside your control so there is no value or moral to it nothing is "good" or "bad" it just "is" they are called indifferents and there can be preferred and unpreferred indifferents e.g. every human would prefer to be in good health and to have a comfortable amount of wealth but there's nothing you can really actually do to hold on to those things you can lose your job unexpectedly and a virus can wipe out your health this is not an original idea the taoists and the discordians believe that things exist and don't have any value or moral quality until it is given such by the observer anyway i think that e has attained a certain degree of enlightenment through his suffering and alienation good or bad don't get too attached or dwell too much on how it feels it's gonna change eventually all you can really do is just be human and live life 5. I'M GOING TO STOP PRETENDING THAT I DIDN'T BREAK YOUR HEART a real sad one if i was making a playlist of really sad songs there are a lot of eels songs i would add and this would be one of them dripping with regret and realization that oh shoot am i the bad guy? so many of e's songs are about alienation and not relating to humans like *Mother Mary* and *Ant Farm* that it is remarkable whenever he makes a significant connection like this on the other hand he is so used to miserable feelings that he is likely to feel a ton of responsibility and remorse whenever he recognizes that he caused those miserable feelings in somebody else there's a certain tenderness when a poor pitiful scoundrel realizes that they're making somebody else feel poor and pitiful because they know far too well just what that feels like 6. TO LICK YOUR BOOTS "people spend their days trying to find new ways to put you down all over town but they're not fit to lick your boots" a song of empowerment and fuck em don't let em get you down 7. IF YOU SEE NATALIE "girl steady the trembling hand that's what you do" more comforting the distraught an older, wiser E shepherding the damaged through their trauma "you may not need this world but this world needs here" this is a far better and more effective "hey, sad girl, don't cry" song than anything anybody else ever wrote 8. SWEET LIL THING just a straight up sweet little love song i think this fits on the shelf with *Fresh Feeling* and *This Is Where It Gets Good*, which will show up later 9. DUSK: A PEACH IN THE ORCHARD an instrumental that is *not* part of the blinking lights suite 10. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SOY BOMB i don't know if you remember Bob Dylan's performance at the Grammys in 1998 if you do, you likely remember it as the song during which one of dylan's backup dancers went rogue and ripped of his shirt and started dancing erratically at the front of the stage while dylan very deliberately pretended not to notice it was super distracting and overshadowed dylan's performance just like its reference does to this song i can never focus on what e's actually singing about because all i can think about is Soy Bomb writhing and gyrating 11. UGLY LOVE "my kind of love is an ugly love but it's real and it lasts a long long time" this song is about somebody who is happy and content with being monstrous or maybe just a little bit repulsive because they know that their feelings and their love are valid and powerful and enough and if somebody can't appreciate that then they are the unfortunate one 12. GOD'S SILENCE another musical interlude! 13. LOSING STREAK "was i wrong about the world? it's a beautiful new place where else could a creep like me meet such a pretty face?" all of the muted subtle strength and optimism on this disc comes roaring to the forefront on this track with e insisting that his losing streak is done and wondering whether the world is really all so bad as he thinks it is this song is relentlessly happy and optimistic plus i've always been a sucker for a horn section 14. LAST DAYS OF MY BITTER HEART painful and weird haunting keyboard solo 15. THE STARS SHINE IN THE SKY TONIGHT i consider the track a sort of epilogue to this album and so this is the actual closing track to *Blinking Lights* it's sad and reflective and very bleak outlook on life and it would be a major bummer to end on especially after the uplifting *Losing Streak* it really does need *Things The Grandchildren Should Know* to add some final context and maybe a little bit of levity to all the fatalist, depressing content of this track to let us know it's going to be okay 16. THINGS THE GRANDCHILDREN SHOULD KNOW feels like a bonus track one of the most intimate and candid tracks not just on this double album but possibly that e has ever written this is also the title of his autobiography and it is equally confessional this one can make me feel really weird inside and can fuck me up if i'm not careful i relate so hard to when he starts talking about how he hates leaving the house or being around people but then is like "you might think i hate people but that's not quite right" the final words of the song and of this album: "i had some regrets but if i had to do it all again well it's something i'd like to do" this makes me just cry for e that he can even say this after all he's been through CONCLUSION *Blinking Lights* is the Eelsiest Eels album of all time it is the saddest and the most hopeful and the bleakest and the most lovely and the most beautiful and weird it's e at the top of his game as a writer and composer i don't listen to it often because it can leave my feelings all twisted up and leave me feeling kind of raw the end of this album marks a huge shift for e in content and style and its the last album of his that i truly fell in love with up next is the "longing / ending / beginning" trilogy of albums beginning with *Hombre Lobo* HOMBRE LOBO, 2009 ================= INTRODUCTION here comes the wolfman! E had a beard worthy of ZZ Top when he recorded this album it is the first in a trilogy of concept albums: - hombre lobo: songs of desire, lust, and longing - end times: songs of, you guessed it! endings - tomorrow morning: songs of beginnings *end times* and *tomorrow morning* is around the time that I stopped listening to the Eels quite as closely and as obsessively as I did in the 90s and early 00s. so as we go on from here, this will be newer and less familiar material for me. which i am excited about. that said, i really like *hombre lobo*. it is a very good straight up rock album. okay let's go! 1. PRIZEFIGHTER what a beginning to this album! the first 5 seconds give you a note of electric guitar, a primal howl, and a driving drum beat. this is gonna be a rocker. really sets the tone for the album the maraca and the bass coming in on the second verse the screaming and wailing before the bridge the whole thing just builds and builds it's ecstatic e possibly at his most manic every line is just bristling with confidence and swagger this has been my "power song" at times in my life a sort of mantra that i repeat to myself i'm a dynamiter i'm a go-all-night-er i'm a look-at-things-alright-er i'm a don't-do-it-wrong,-do-it-right-er i'm a prizefighter "i've been through a lot and you can't scare me" is probably the most true thing that e has ever written and it's one of the reasons that i admire him so much he has unflinchingly and unapologetically documented how shitty the world is and how powerless we all are to avoid tragedy and yet he finds love and beauty and joy in the world all the same he's been through so much and writes so openly and honestly about his pain that it just creates a lot of trust for me and so i believe him when he says that things are going to be okay hold on to your butts because bad stuff is gonna happen and you're gonna suffer but there's not anything you can do about it so you might as well have a good time 2. THAT LOOK YOU GIVE THAT GUY stand out track a best-in-genre example of the "why do you like him and not me?" sad and pathetic unrequited love song 3. LILAC BREEZE whoa where did this song come from? on the heels of *that look* this one comes in hot and heavy "birds do it, bees do it, I wanna do it the only thing we need to do is get down to it" wolfman wanna fucc this song is good it blows in like a wind stirs shit up and then it's over kind of feels like just checking a box on an album of "12 songs of longing" about a wolfman there's just got to be one about raw animal desire for sex also in the language of flowers lilacs are meant to represent first love 4. IN MY DREAMS aw this one is cute 5. TREMENDOUS DYNAMITE this one will rock your face clean off and afterwords you won't have a face "i am an hombre lobo" explicitely about the wolfman on the prowl, on a hunt "got a fuse that i can't light she's tremendous she's dynamite" this whole song is just fraught with danger she's dynamite he's got a fuse the two of them are just a powderkeg waiting to blow it subverts the predator / prey dynamic because she is "a formidible opponent" and just as likely to blow him sky high as he is likely to prey on her 6. THE LONGING "surely there are other things to life but i can't think of one single thing that matters more than just to see her" when sting sat down to write a stalker song he WISHES he wrote *the longing* instead of *i'll be watching you* this is creepy and unhinged and uncomfortable to be around the second verse is amazing to me the longing goes from being a pain to being 'a friend' because it makes him feel close to her it's a way to bridge the distance between them because they can't actually be together he focuses on the longing as a kind of substitute for her? and then "when i say i would die for her it's not just words, i really would and to make the world a safer place for her well i believe i really could" the longing only exists because he can't be with her and he can't be with her because he's dangerous if his death would make the world a safer place for her then his mere existence must make the world a more dangerous place so what a complicated relationship with the longing what anguish 7. FRESH BLOOD a little bit on the nose wolfman gonna wolf which is not to say it's not good because it is another rocker another howler this whole album is sooo goood "after the fires before the flood sweet baby i need fresh blood" wolfy getting downright biblical a real force of nature there's no helping it it's his nature as natural as mud look at this line "whatever trepidation you may feel in your heart you know it's not real in a moment of clarity summon an act of charity" what a call to surrender to acceptance 8. WHAT'S A FELLA GOT TO DO this sounds to me like the follow-up to *Lilac Breeze* to me it's primal and raw 9. MY TIMING IS OFF whew, this song is an exhale a dose of sanity after a long string of lusty yearny madness it's sad and full of desire but it is human emotion talking here and not the furious cravings of the wolfman 10. ALL THE BEAUTIFUL THINGS another sad and pitiful song it's kind of a rational side of *what's a fella gotta do* 11. BEGINNER'S LUCK this song resolves a lot of the tension in this album with the cheerful bells and the doo-whop Whoa Whoa Whoas it sounds like the start of something good this is like.. there's still desire here but it sounds like the excited and hopeful desire for the future and the unknown when you're setting out together on a new adventure and in a new relationship it's a content and happy kind of desire not the demented and horrible longing present in other songs 12. ORDINARY MAN wolfy's outro "you seem like someone who could appreciate the fact that i'm no ordinary man" CONCLUSION whew what a trip i remembered that i like this album but i forgot what a rush it is lusty and out of control it's like being behind the wheel of a car and somebody just cut the brake lines 10 out of 10, highly recommend END TIMES, 2010 =============== so this is the first time that i think i started to kind of drift away from the eels. there are definitely some tracks on here that i really like. but this is the first time that on a whole i'm not really picking up what E is putting down. at least that's what i remember. excited to give it a listen and see what i think now. this is supposed to be the middle stepping stone between *Hombre Lobo*'s songs of desire and *Tomorrow Morning*'s songs of beginnings. this is all about endings. get ready for some breakups and stuff. 1. THE BEGINNING let's start an album about endings with a song about beginnings! just like how the first 5 seconds of *Hombre Lobo* tell you everything you need to know about the kind of ride you're about to take, the first seconds of "The Beginning" set the tone here with its melancholy guitar picking and the echo on E's vocals as though he's the voice of experience talking to from far far in the future, feeling nostalgia for the way things are and lamenting the way things ended up 2. GONE MAN "i never thought that i should quit all the stupid crazy shit i would do in the name of keeping good things away" there is a certain kind of self-destructiveness where you push and test and sabotage but sometimes you just really get just what you ask for and when it blows up in your face you have nobody to blame but yourself and sometimes you can't help but feel surprised at the consequences of your own actions i think the memesters call this "leopards ate my face" 3. IN MY YOUNGER DAYS the voice of age and reason the weird glitchy electronic blips and beeps on this track are new for an eels song makes him sound like a Future Man kind of the opposite of "Railroad Man" from *Blinking Lights* who is an obsolete man from the past living in the present here we have an obsolete man from the future 4. MANSIONS OF LOS FELIZ i don't know much about Los Feliz or LA but i love the imagery of secrets boarded up in the walls of these big mansions in a neighborhood whose name means Happiness a metaphor for smiling on the outside while crying on the inside 5. A LINE IN THE DIRT "she locked herself in the bathroom again so i am pissing in the yard" this is one of the saddest breakup songs i've ever heard in my life this one is haunting sometimes a snippet of this song will intrude on my thoughts out of nowhere and it immediately shakes me to my core it's just so desperate he wants so badly to help her and feels such a prisoner and wants to get away and they both know it "she said no i don't want to be alone but i think you do" there are things people do when they don't want to talk when they're trying to avoid something uncomfortable yet inevitable they do things to avoid it like daring her to step across the line knowing that she will both because she can't help it and also because she knows it will set him free something about the way the whole thing is orchestrated and how they avoid just talking to each other really breaks my heart 6. END TIMES harkens back to "Something Is Sacred" when he invokes the crazy homeless guy on the corner and chooses to relate to him "outside my window there's a cat in heat shut up cat and leave me alone" this line always cracks me up it feels like a moment of levit in an otherwise very sad and serious song the world is ending and this cat is annoying 7. APPLE TREES spoken word track oh wow i never made this connection before but this is the very first time E has done anything like this since "Susan's House" way back on *Beautiful Freak* 8. PARADISE BLUES nice blues track when i first heard this song i thought singing about suicide bombers was in poor taste and i still kind of do but also i think e has little tolerance for glorified suicide "i'm gonna walk these filthy streets i'm gonna raise my head i may not be in paradise whoo but i'm not dead" that seems to pretty much sum up e's outlook on life 9. NOWADAYS "trouble is a friend of mine i'd like to leave behind i like my friends more refined" i think it must be challenging to write the kind of song that E is trying to write here because even in his talented hands this can come across as a terrible "kids these days / in my days" boomer facebook meme "the truth is something no one really wants to hear you say just how you doing and have a nice day" "nowadays go for a walk better not stop and wave or say hello" this might be the only eels song that i just don't like 10. UNHINGED this is E telling some girl she's crazy in some ways it sounds like another telling of "A Line In The Dirt" where it's not so much sorrowful and heartbreaking as it is angry and resentful 12. I NEED A MOTHER there are lots of different kinds of endings most of this album has been about romantic relationships but there are also familial relationships and E has spent most of his career writing about the loss of his parents and his sister 13. LITTLE BIRD "goddamn i miss that girl" can't help but notice the connection to "i like birds" from *Daises* 14. ON MY FEET "i am a man in great pain over great beauty" this song is pretty but also it feels like there's not really anything here not very substantive 15. AND NOW FOR THE END TIMES and now for the End Times bonus EP this voice over / introduction scares me! 16. SOME FRIEND so this is bonus content right? this isn't part of the regular album just as well this track isn't very memorable i think i'm feeling kind of fatigued by this album at this point 17. WALKING CLOUD "She says I'm like a big black cloud on legs" this is like a page torn from E's diary it's possible that he and his wife were splitting up at this point 18. $200 TATTOO this sounds a little unpolished and like a demo tape i'm not sure about this "End Times EP" situation 19. THE MAN WHO DIDN'T KNOW HE'D LOST HIS MIND "he didn't know he'd lost his mind he really thought that he was fine" CONCLUSION this is a really long album at 19 tracks and it's a challenging listen for me i like it better now than i did when i first heard it it's a tough follow up to *Hombre Lobo* night and day really literally *Hombre Lobo* is the desire that comes with the falling of night and *End Times* is that space where it's darkest before the dawn and up next is *Tomorrow Morning* where morning finally breaks some of the tracks feel a little forced like E assigned himself a song to write on a topic i think that this is a time in E's life where he's no longer writing in crisis he has enough time and space and health and perspective to be physically and mentally able to take on longer more ambitious writing projects like a trilogy of concept albums and these albums are writing exercises not therapy any more and so i sit here and selfishly think to myself gosh, i don't like this as much as the stuff he wrote when he was in free fall as though i'm entitled to being entertained by the bleeding of the artist TOMORROW MORNING, 2010 ====================== so this came out the same year as *End Times* both of them one year after *Hombre Lobo* End Times and Tomorrow Morning really could have been a double album to be honest End Times was the first time I didn't really gel with E and Tomorrow Morning was time I really didn't /get it/ in many ways this trilogy has a lot of parallels to the Beautiful Freak, Electro-Shock Blues, Daisies of the Galaxy trilogy: 1. Beautiful Freak / Hombre Lobo: desire and longing 2. Electro-Shock Blues / End Times: endings and despair 3. Daisies of the Galaxy / Tomorrow Morning: beginnings and moving forward I just don't think that End Times and Tomorrow Morning land as well as the older albums do 1. IN GRATITUDE FOR THIS MAGNIFICENT DAY on the previous two albums the first 5 - 8 seconds of the opening track set the entire tone in the first 5 - 8 seconds of this album there's practically nothing there a tinkling tickling ambient kind of tune nothing to engage with nothing to bite down on E's not even here 2. I'M A HUMMINGBIRD this song is sweet and saccharine and boring 4. BABY LOVES ME probably the most 'classic' sounding track 5. SPECTACULAR GIRL *beautiful freak* esque organs on this one 7. THIS IS WHERE IT GETS GOOD this is probably the best track on this album and also the most unusual sounding eels song a heavy electronic sound and soaring strings really deliver it