Product Description

With his band Eels, the one-lettered pop wiz known as E expands on both his name and his dark, baroque vision. Eels arelike your precocious teenaged brother, brimming with talent, discontent and alienation. Their musical aptitude is ingratiating enough to mitigate their gen-X sad-sack persona. Thetrio employs a variety of sonic strategies, including hip-hop beats, spoken narratives, orchestral touches and choral voices, to round out a tart, twisted version of guitar-based alternative rock.
Not a band likely to be found on the sunny side of the street, Eels spin tale after tale of disaffection and existential ennui. Even a love song like the titletrack revolves around the concept that the object of the narrator's affection is desirable mostly because she's just asmuch a misfit as he is. "Guest List" presupposes God's disregard for the singer with an almost anticipatory glee. Eels'ace in the hole is their pop smarts, which are up to the task of contrasting their bleak outlook with immediately arresting melodies and arrangements. The gestalt of these two elements makes BEAUTIFUL FREAK an original and spellbinding recording.

Track Listing

1. Novocaine For The Soul
2. Susan's House
3. Rags To Rags
4. Beautiful Freak
5. Not Ready Yet
6. My Beloved Monster
7. Flower
8. Guest List
9. Mental
10. Spunky
11. Your Lucky Day In Hell
12. Manchild

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23927 in Music
• Released on: 1999-06-18
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 44 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
E, the guitarist, vocalist and songwriter with LA band Eels, had already recorded two solo albums before teaming up with drummer Butch and bassist Tommy to produce Beautiful Freak. Opener and single "Novocaine for the Soul" set the tone: melodic, articulate pop that, like fellow LA musician Beck, makes startling and inventive use of samples, beats and odd arrangements. The Eels' music takes in post-Nirvana grunge, soul, country, hip-hop, and even jazz, all without sounding derivative; E's intensely personal lyrics are similarly multi-faceted, blending wit, angst, disaffection, and surreal urban detail--as in the mournfully soundtracked cross-city trek of "Susan's House". Throughout the eclectic swirl of musical influence and misanthropic irony the band never lose the ability to craft affecting laid-back pop songs and subtle, naggingly catchy hooks. An inspired album, and that rare thing, an art-house rock record full of memorable tunes. --Burhan Tufail

Customer Reviews

Don't let this slip by
I have an eclectic music collection yet somehow Eels had escaped me. I bought this a week ago and haven't stopped playing it. For me it is simply perfect. The song structures, the lyrics, the musicianship and of course the well of emotion from which E draws. The crazy thing is that I had heard of his Dad first !! Despite this being over a decade old it is just so artistically relevant, it appeals on so many levels and Ive enjoyed it loudly at home, in the car and even in a chill out mode....and it works. Intelligent, original and very refreshing. In fact freakishly beautiful.

Lullabies of loneliness
I don't think to this day you will ever hear any band or artiste like the EELS. What they do so very well is they have a sound of their own, and that sound is full of riffs on the ugliness of life, what it is to be alone, but at the same time has it's sweet and even funny moments. A fantastic example of the rang the EELS have is the song Guest List, a song basically about not being beautiful enough to be on the guest list for a party, "Am I one of the beautiful people?/Is my name on the list?/Wanna be one of the beautiful people/Wanna feel like I'm missed".
The whole album is really beautifully done in an ugly way(not meaning to pun on the album title, Beautiful Freak), in the fact that E's discordant, rough voice, evoking humour, loneliness, and what it is to not be a part of a crowd.
There's so many good tracks on this album, it'd take too long to tell you about them all, and it would ruin the experience. But for me, the track that always gets me right in the chest is Manchild, with it's stark, lonely beauty, sang by E in the voice of a child. The opening guitar on it sounds a bit like Everybody Hurts, like a gently lulling thrum, as he's singing "Every time you crave for me, I'm here/And anything you're hungry for, I'll share/And I will be quietly standing by/While slowly I am dying inside." E knows what it is to be alone; to be in love with a girl who will never return that love and will never be saved, a girl that will forget you as soon as she doesn't need you.
If you've ever felt alone, unrequited and out of step, then I'd highly reccomend this album.

One of my top 10 albums of all time
Why why why are the Eels not more popular? This album is an absolute classic. Go on give it a few listens and see if you dont agree.
Sad, Honest , funny. the lyrics are amazing.

Every song a masterpiece.
Novacaine for the soul is by no means the best.
I cant understand why it was the best known single.