Eels
Souljacker

THE REVIEW

An unjustly underrated album by the "EELS", these are the ones that step off the beaten path that only those with a strong sense of self-irony can deliver, and the "EELS," especially the creative mind of Mark Oliver "E" Everett, could teach a course at the Sorbonne in self-irony.

Sure, they've made better albums; the same "Shootenanny" two years later brings our guys back to the glory of the early "Beautiful Freak", but it's this one I want to focus on because it's a disjointed work and I like disjointed stuff. The echoes already from the second track "That's Not Really Funny" evoke the king of losers par excellence. With the third track "Fresh Feeling", if you don't look at the cover, you'd think it really is an album by the blond one (in a state of grace). Then comes a big ballad "Woman Driving, Man Sleeping", it makes you immediately want to stop doing anything and get drunk, and you even forget the blond one. The ballad ends and the first part of "Souljacker" arrives, an incredibly powerful piece, pure rock'n'roll; bass guitar riff and screams a "summary" of how it should be but almost never is. Then in order "Friendly Ghost" and "Teenage Witch", the latter almost embarrassing in its reference to the goofier side of Beck, but you never have the sensation of plagiarism, rather the manipulation of the concept of making a track to make those who never dance, dance. With "Bus Stop Boxer", you stop dancing and go looking for the abandoned bottle, hoping there's something left to drink. With "Jungle Telegraph", you start moving the lack of meniscus as Jerry Calà used to say, but this time you hold the bottle firmly in hand because it's a great piece with cheap electronic inserts that would make the bearded “grandpas” of California envious.

Then comes "World Of Shit", I believe the title says it all. The finale is all about the second part of "Souljacker" and the aftereffects of the binge. Not a fundamental album (for those who don't know them, it's better to start with the latest and beautiful "Blinking Lights") but it surely gives an idea of how the "EELS" even in minor episodes are actually from another planet.