Eels – Beautiful Freak (1996)

Eels is one of my all time favourite bands. Well, it's not technically a band. It's mainly the man called Mark Oliver Everett, or E. He makes amazing melancholic songs with fantastic, very personal, lyrics related to his own life. Beautiful Freak was the first album that was released with the band name Eels. Before then, he had released a couple of albums under the name E. He thought that by naming the band with a name that starts with E, he would get his albums quite close together in record stores, but then he realised that there are so many bands between E and Eels that it didn't really serve the purpose. Eagles, Echo & the Bunnymen etc. I simply love E's raspy voice. He can really sing almost anything and I'm happy. I don't think there's any another existing band or artist in the world that I would appreciate as much as Eels.



I read E's autobiography, Things that Grandchildren Should Know, and that made me appreciate him even more. He moved to California with a dream to make music for a living, but his first couple of albums didn't really draw that much attention. This debut album then became somewhat of a hit because he managed to get it published by DreamWorks. I'm really glad he did, because otherwise I don't know if I would've ever found out about Eels. This album has some heartwarming songs and the overall mood of the album is quite positive even if there are some sad lyrics among these songs. It was the next album Electro-Shock Blues that really perfected his music, but to get there, E had to go through many painful phases that I'm going to go through in more detail when I write about that album.

This debut album is quite carefully produced even if the music has the sense of being home-made. I really like the sounds on this album and the melodies and lyrics are just phenomenal. There isn't a single song that I wouldn't care about. Each song has some personal significance to me. Back in the early 00's, I used to listen to the early Eels albums over and over again and it's one of the few bands whose lyrics I know almost all by heart.

With this album, Eels was beginning to get fame in certain alternative circles at least in the US and that meant that he could also make music videos. Eels' music videos are always quite amazing. Probably the biggest hit from this album, Novocaine for the Soul, has a great black and white music video where the band members are flying around in an alley way and whenever the music stops, they fall down.

I first got to know the Eels by going to their concert in Helsinki. I didn't really know any of their songs back then, but I was really impressed. Then, it took me more than 10 years to see them again here in London. Both of those shows were after quite rocky albums, so the shows featured more rock songs and I didn't really get to hear my favourites in a way I enjoyed them the most on the albums. Then finally, the third time was the charm, when I saw them at Barbican and E mostly played a grand piano and sung his bummer songs. I cried my eyes out in many of the songs out of sheer fandom for the music.

Eels is probably the only band with this long career that hasn't really disappointed me with their albums. Well, I wasn't much of a fan of Tomorrow Morning, but it's not that bad either. Beautiful Freak doesn't have the depth of Electro-Shock Blues and I don't have as strong personal bond to it as I have to Daisies of the Galaxy, which was the first Eels album I ever owned, but it's definitely one of the greatest albums they've made and I have nothing but praises to say about this album.

Listen to the album on Spotify.