nixsight

Beautiful Freak was the first Eels album I ever heard. It’s probably still the one that gets the most exposure, and though there are other songs from other albums that I like better than the ones on this one, I think it’s probably still the tightest and most cohesive track-list of the lot.

The album has been on fairly solid rotation on my iPod all week, for some reason – it’s impressive in that it’s upbeat enough to walk into work by, but also relaxing enough to play during dinner, or when I need to unwind. Girl One likes them too, so that helps.

E’s lyrics, and his vocal, are flexible, too – they have a depth that makes them both cinematic and literary at the same time, but he remains tongue in cheek throughout, and this makes them perfectly light fare to be used as backing to other things. In fact, two of the songs I’m sharing with you here I first heard on movie soundtracks.

The Eels make versatile and awesome music, is what I’m getting at.

3. Rags To Rags – The Eels

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… For some reason, Apple want me to keep hearing this particular song. Their ever unreliable shuffle function keeps letting this one drift to the top. I ain’t complainin’, though. It is, after all, great.

2. My Beloved Monster And Me – The Eels

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Beautifully evocative, and full of both affection and dread. I first heard this song used incredibly literally in the first “Shrek” movie, and it was a shock to the system then, because on the one hand, it was odd hearing such contemporary music in a film set in a completely fantastic medieval world, and on the other, it was amazing.

It’s unclear whether E is singing about a notional partner, here, who is as fierce as she is loyal, or if he’s talking allegorically about a part of his own psyche. In that regard, it’s similar to Laura Marlin’s “My Manic And I”, also on current rotation, also lovely and thought-provoking at the same time.

Me, I choose to hear either song as either meaning, depending on my mood. Perhaps facetiously, I have set it as Girl One’s ring-tone on my phone.

3. Your Lucky Day In Hell – The Eels

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I liked “Shrek”. It had a lot going for it. “Dead Man On Campus”, on the other hand, had very little going for it – unless you class being the post-”Saved By The Bell” movie role for the dude who played Zack.

But it has a kind of charm, and a slick presentation that probably comes mostly from the fact that it’s an MTV produced movie. And that probably counts for the quite sharp music choices that they made on the soundtrack.

Which is preamble to saying that the film opens and closes with this song, and it sets the scene enough that I find the whole movie easy to watch because of it. In that regard, it sticks in my head as one of two great musical openings to films – the other being the use of “One Week” by The Barenaked Ladies in “American Pie”.

A great song, full of loathing and heartbreaking anxiety, with a glut of lines that an occasional misanthrope like myself can sing along to and feel vicariously clever in the process.

A little treat – not a great copy, but a great song…