Eels – Daisies of the Galaxy (2000)

This is one of my all-time favourite albums. However, it's perhaps still not the best Eels album. Where the second album of Eels, Electro-Shock Blues was this super intimate and melancholic album related to Mark Oliver Everett's personal life tragedies, Daisies of the Galaxies is a warm, cozy and even quite happy album. E himself had commented on this change of style in the following words: "if Electro-Shock Blues was the phone call in the middle of the night that the world doesn't want to answer, then Daisies of the Galaxy is the hotel wake-up call that says your lovely breakfast is ready". I think this really does a good job describing the mood of the album. Daisies of the Galaxy was my personal first plunge into the music of Eels, which has become one of my dearest bands in the world. I own every single one of their albums.



I got to know Eels through my friend who worked in a record shop in Helsinki. He encouraged me to go and see a gig with 22-Pistepirkko, a Finnish band I liked, and Eels, a band I had never heard of at that point. Before the gig I borrowed this album from the library and I was hooked from the first seconds. The gig was also great, even if Eels had just released their fourth album, Souljacker, that is not one of my favourite albums. They still played lots of these old songs and I got to see one of my favourite bands live even before I realised just how big of an impact it would take on my life. Later on, I've managed to see Eels live two more times and especially the latter time in Barbican was one of the most touching and memorable gigs of my life.

The music on Daisies of the Galaxy is very simple. Most of the songs are simple singer-songwriter folk songs, but the genius comes from the sounds that are absolutely endearing, Mr. E's amazingly witty and funny lyrics and the beauty of the simple melodies that come from the heart. E's raspy vocals are also a big part of why I love this music so much. As someone who has a very high and clear voice, I truly appreciate voices that have raspier edges to them.

The album starts with a marching band intro of the song Grace Kelly Blues. The quiet acoustic guitar picks and sunny vocal melodies set the mood perfectly. The song makes you happy instantly, while at the same time you can hear there's depth in this song that is going to offer a range of emotions. The next song Packing Blankets continues in similar vein. The songwriting of this song is very similar to Bob Dylan's folk songs, except instead of difficult analogies, the lyrics are very straightforward and honest. I really like that. I've played this song a lot with a guitar and a mandolin myself. The Sound of Fear brings in some odd sounds familiar from the previous album in the form of organ sounds and muffled noises attached to a glockenspiel. I Like Birds is probably the first song by the Eels that ever caught my attention. The crazy childlike style of the song along with roughly styled electric guitars is a proof that Eels can make even the simplest of songs sound cool. The lyrics are quite hilarious. The title-track Daisies of the Galaxy is a ballad with excellent horn-sections on top of lo-fi electric guitars. This song sounds like the lazy Sundays with nothing to do. Flyswatter is one of my favourite tracks from the album. The melody is brilliantly crazy and the sounds make it even more ominous. The interplay between the verses and chorus is absolutely amazing. It's a Motherfucker, despite of its name, is an amazingly beautiful ballad and filled with diary-like sentiment. The record label wanted to have a clean version of the song, so it has also been recorded with the title It's a Monster Trucker. Tiger In My Tank has some great mental psychedelic sound bits in a seemingly catchy pop song. The interesting thing about this song is that what basically is the chorus is actually an instrumental bit with amazing organ sounds. A Daisy Through Concrete's jazzy groove reminds me of Peanuts the movie. The soft rock organs give it some nice warmth. Jeannie's Diary is one of the most beautiful songs on the album. The song reminds me of many moments in my life where I've felt sentimental and the song has truly resonated with me. Wooden Nickles is another beautiful song that can make me really happy or make me cry depending on my own mood. Something is Sacred has the most amazing lyrics. My favourite passage is "Taking a walk down to the mall/Smelling piss and beer and gas/That could be me in a couple years/Suckin' fumes under the highway pass/On a rainy day/While I wear newspaper for pants/And a t-shirt that says "damn I'm good" ". Selective Memory showcases E's amazing falsetto along with his raspy throaty vocals. It's an amazingly beautiful song. Mr. E's Beautiful Blues was a hit song even before the release of the album. It wasn't meant to be included on the album, but the record label insisted it goes on there, so Eels added it as a hidden track. It's a real hit song, but I can see why the band didn't want to include it. It kind of breaks the mood of the rest of the album.

Eels has some amazing music videos. I really like E's personality and his strange humour. It is reflected beautifully in the band's music videos. Here's the video for Flyswatter. It includes nuns and clowns, surfers and policemen. I'm not even going to interpret its meaning, but I really encourage you to watch it.

Eels is a really dear band to me. I've grown to become the adult I am with them for the last 17 years. Their music relates to so many events in my life and it still makes me laugh and cry.

Listen to the album on Spotify.