I read E's autobiography, Things The Grandchildren Should Know, quite a few years ago now. It really made me love E's music even more. It gave context to all of that sadness and to all of the beauty in his songs. It also explains why his songs sound like they are happening in a dream while at the same time being brutally honest and realistic. I'm sure it wasn't easy that after having moved to Los Angeles to make music, his whole family disappeared from his life. His life literally changed completely in just a few years.
Musically, many of the songs on this album are really simple compositions consisting of only a few chords and very predictable melodies. It's the sounds that really struck me the first time I heard this album. E has mostly just recorded these songs on his own with the help of a handful of musicians. The result sounds very intimate and I can imagine him just playing these songs in his basement adding more and more layers to a very simple core. Some of the songs have really experimental sounds as well and instead of just normal pop aesthetics, this album includes lots of jazzy fills and interesting instrumentations. E's raspy voice gives the final touch into the mix.
The album starts with the song Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor, which is a direct reference to his sister who was depressed for a long time and finally killed herself. There's eerie beauty in this song that's one of the saddest ones I've ever heard. The theme continues with Going to Your Funeral Part I. There are some amazingly heavy bass and drum rhythms in this song that are accompanied with razor-sharp electric guitars. The scary sounds switch to glockenspiels in the chorus bringing the lighter thoughts over the tough issues. It's like E is getting out of his own sadness every once in a while to focus on what's going on around him. Cancer for the Cure starts with amazing noise guitars. This song was undoubtedly written for his mother. E followed her slow fading away by cancer that they knew was terminal. The bass-driven groovy beat is just fantastic. My Descent Into Madness sounds strangely happy considering the topic of the album and this song. I guess it's one of the greatest examples of E's amazing capability to deal with the difficult issues in his songs. 3 Speed was for a long time one of my favourite Eels songs and I guess it still kind of is. There's something absolutely beautiful in these endearing sounds. It finds joy and beauty in the midst of all the darkness. Hospital Food is another kind of jazzy and gloomy song related to her mother's cancer. There are some excellent horns in the song. The title-track Electro-Shock Blues is this echoey and psychedelic song where E's voice sounds distant coming from outside of his head. This song refers to the treatments his sister got when she was institutionalised. Efil's God has beautiful string arrangements that have been modified to sound backwards in a true Beatles fashion. I love E's high vocals on gloomy bass lines in the verse. Going to your Funeral Part II is undoubtedly about the second funeral, E's mum. Here the mood is less heavy and more psychedelic and strange. I guess this is when he realised that he was the last person alive from his family and he had to make sure he had a meaningful life even after these kinds of experiences. Last Stop: This Town is also an amazing song. Musically it sounds truly happy, but the song actually relates to the instance when E really thought he saw his dead sister who visited him for the very last time. This is a good example of a song that sounds amazing on this album, but it's all very simply played. Baby Genius has some strange noises over what's essentially a lullaby. I'm not exactly sure what this song refers to, but I guess it actually refers to E himself. Climbing to the Moon is one of the most beautiful songs on this album. It moves away from heavier bass-driven first half of the album into a more folky sound world. The chorus is amazing. I'm not exactly what Ant Farm is about. It seems like an odd song to have on an album such as this. I guess it's part of E's story to say that even though most of what's going on is shit, there are still good things in life and they may be quite insignificant, but as long as you get enjoyment out of them, they're good. Dead of Winter is another song about death. Another song about his mother. It's about facing the inevitable death being scared. The Medication Is Wearing Off is fantastically psychedelic and strange song with beautifully otherworldly atmosphere. It sounds like it's partly at least referring to E's feeling after all of the grief. The album ends with the song P.S. You Rock My World, which is about love and life. About how everyone else dying, E decides to consciously live more than he has before.
I really like Eels music videos. Probably because I like E's stage persona so much. He's really funny, yet dead serious at the same time. In the video for Last Stop: This Town, E is some kind of scientist who creates a talking carrot who's singing the odd sounded parts of the song. The chorus bits show the band playing the song on tiny platforms. Towards the end it turns out that the carrot is a kind of mini-me of E himself.
Throughout the album, the sounds switch according to the topic. There's a different, very heavy sound for E's sister, sad and beautiful for his mother, and psychedelic and distant to his own experiences going through the events of his life. Then again, there's an overall mood to the album that stays the same all the time. I think it's a fantastic theme album because of all of these little tricks. I can't understand how E was able to make this album and even sing these on tours afterwards, but I'm really glad he did, because it's one of the most important albums ever to me.
Listen to the album on Spotify.
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