Eels Album: “Shootenanny!”

Description :

Eels: Mark Oliver Everett. <p>Additional personnel: Kool G Murder, Butch, Lisa Germano, Joe Gore, James King, Todd Simon, Scott Gordon. <p>Mark Everett, the Eels mastermind commonly known simply as E, has been around the block enough to know how to distill his craft to its essence. That's just what he does on SHOOTENANNY, having previously released six Eels albums and two as A Man Called E. He's as unapologetically misery-laden as ever, of course, but we wouldn't have him any other way. Even when he makes a romantic entreaty, all he can ultimately offer to the object of his affection is the "Love of the Loveless." <p>What's most remarkable is the way he's pared things down production-wise. For an artist known as a wizard of popcraft in terms of both writing and arrangements, E keeps things surprisingly spare and simple throughout the album. The bulk of the songs, while retaining an undeniable pop sensibility, are musically straightforward pop-rock romps with little ornamentation and few quirky sonic touches. Uncomplicated guitar riffs and keyboard patterns power these directly emotive compositions. Did we mention that he was still miserable? E revels ironically in that emotion on the aptly titled "Agony," where he muses "maybe I need some psychiatric help" over a torturous 6/8 groove. SHOOTENANNY offers music and emotions pared to the bone, but it'll fill you up in due course.

I've always enjoyed E's stuff, and the Eels...very good indeed. But, this is perhaps E's masterpiece and arguably the Best Album of the Year thus far. At just over 40 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome (like so many who think they must use 50-60 minutes of a CD, even if half of it is filler), and leaves you coming back for more time and again. Great E-Pop with some very hard-edged guitar riffs thrown in - a perfect balance, really. Don't miss this one - all of E and the Eels promise finally comes together. Awesome.

The Eels have released several great albums during the past years, but for every radio friendly 'Last Stop: This Town' you got several 'Souljackers'. Don't get me wrong, I love the Eels, no matter if they play straight forward rock or more complex material. So I do not think, that they are selling out at all on this album. In fact, this album shows, what a great songwriter Mark Oliver Everett really is and the CD will hopefully attract an even wider fan base. There are great rock songs (All in a Day's Work, Saturday Morning, Dirty Girl, Wrong about Bobby), beautiful ballads (The good old Days, Rock Hard Times) and also some 'old style' Eels (Love of the Loveless, Agony, Lone Wolf) material on here. If you never bought an Eels album or if you couldn't quite connect to their older material, give this CD a try. It's definitely one of the best releases this year so far. And as the CD says : Everybody knows these are rock hard times....

This is a rare artist where it's best not to decide which single album is best. Doing so only helps those unfamiliar with the artist decide which ONE album to buy. Spend the money and buy ALL of the Eeels albums out there - you won't be disappointed. Unless of course you don't enjoy strikingly insightful lyrics wrapped in musical arrangements that defy nearly every other artist working today. Need proof of his lyrical talent? From "Somebody Loves You":

This nagging malaise

Depressing? Yeah, when read like the poetry that it is, but coupled with the sweeping orchestral chorus that reinforces the message that "somebody loves you, you're going to make it through" - it's hard to not to feel invigorated by the talent of this artist.

EBHP

E and Butch have been producing rock of the finest quality for years. While Souljacker was full fledged rock, in Shootenanny E emerges somehow having found how to mix some rockin' folk with the melancholy we loved in Electroshock Blues. All I can do is stand back and say: "how did this happen? I'm toe-tappin' happy and drip-droppin' wishing life was better." What?!? you say. Yeah, that's what E does that no one else is on to. You're happy, you're diggin' the folk twang, you want more, and yet you can also sit back and honestly, nostalgically say: these are rock hard times.

Now that E has emerged above the clouds of CMJ indie kids and come into a realm where there is no one but E, the kind of unique realms of rock dwelt in by the likes of Beck, guys who are flying solo and continue to amaze, we can say: enough talk, just enjoy Eels.

The songs are great, the lyrics are great, the album is great... just not as great as the others. All of their albums so far have received 5 stars by me, until this one. Some of the songs seem out of place. It was refreshing to see some of the songs recapture the sound that was discovered on E's solo albums, but even this can't bump it up to a five.