beautiful freak

eels

dreamworks, 1996

Mood—Sincere and timid with occassional intensity.

Sample: "Susan's House"

Thoughts— I remember that Eels sounded amazingly different when they first came out. Their single, "Novocaine For The Soul" got heavy airtime on both the radio and MTV. This was just about when MTV made its transitions into terrible, non-musical programming as its full-time endeavor, which still makes me sad. Literally two weeks before Beautiful Freak came out, MTV launched MTV2 (or M2) which featured music-exclusive programming in large, commercial free blocks. Ah, the old days.

But I digress. I picked up Beautiful Freak solely based on hearing the single. This was the summer before I left for college, and Eels was probably the last band I picked up before heading to the University of Cincinnati. If you ask my dorm roommates, I bet they'd tell you that they heard this album a lot.

For good reason, too, as Beautiful Freak is a nice, mostly quiet album that does little to offend. It's relatively minimalist and has some eerie places, with detuned choral samples and such. The vocals are all delivered in a sort of hoarse whisper-singing, as if Eels had just snuck into their parent's house after curfew and had to record an album.

"Susan's House", one of my personal favorites, has a terrific upright bass line that blends well with the simple melody and electric piano flourishes. Other tracks, such as "Your Lucky Day In Hell" and "Beautiful Freak" follow suit. Nothing seems out of place on this album; it's a very simple, tight set of songs.

Recommended? Certainly. If you don't know any other Eels music, this is the best place to start.

Link—eelstheband.com/

Tracklist
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