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Eels
Beautiful Freak



'E' finds his USP. OK?

Eels

While Mark Oliver Everett's life would turn darker soon enough - the death of his mother and the suicide of his sister lay in wait - his debut under the Eels moniker demonstrated clear signs of unsteadiness. With three albums already unleashed (one, Bad Dude In Love, under his own name, two more for Polydor as 'E'), all hinting at his emotional fragility (finding his quantum physicist father dead in E's teens can't have helped) Beautiful Freak was the first fully-formed glimpse inside his heartache and headfuck. But if MTV-endorsed lead-off single Novocaine For The Soul implied that here was another marketable loser-geek icon to rival Beck, the illusion was short-lived. Later albums would see E push away from the commercial expectations to forge his own unique path, but the signs were evident to anyone paying attention. In Beautiful Freak, post-grunge paranoia and eccentric flourishes (spooky glockenspiels, TV-theme pianos) combine to create a schizophrenic soundtrack, introverted and obsessed, but leavened by lyrical black humour and ironic distance. Susan's House, My Beloved Monster and the title track are all oddball love songs that celebrate imperfection and abnormality, while the grungy Rags To Rags and Mental channel their protagonists' dislocation ("it's like I dressed up in my momma's clothing," reflects the latter) into flurries of cathartic feedback. Still perfectly described by its title, 13 years on, Beautiful Freak remains a weird and wonderful ride into the darkness and out the other side.

Mischa Pearlman

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 19/11/2009

Further Listening

Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations (Vagrant, 2005)

Beck - Mutations (DGC, 1998)

Sparklehorse - Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot (Parlophone, 1996)


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