Eels - 'Meet The Eels' (Universal) Released 21/01/08

Eels have always enjoyed greater success outside of their native U.S. where they are still regarded as something of an incoherent novelty act at odds with the zeitgeist (oh, how they love defined genres!), conceiving a debut album of mashed styles when grunge was still de rigeur. 'Meet The Eels', for those who haven't already, familiarises the listener with the bearded bard Mark 'E' Everett and his entourage at an all purpose food and lodging truck-stop taking a chronological developmental traipse of their six album recording history. 'Meet The Eels' comprises two dozen highly unmissable tunes that explore the history of an alternative, anti-music industry band who have slipped inside the mainstream and sold millions,  gracing movies such as American Beauty, Shrek (1,2,3), as well as Scrubs. At times cavorting with a frivolity that conceals a resurgent spirit bouncing back from the pits, at times with a mischievous black humour, E's versatile songwriting is capable of some of the most heart-rending ballads, outsider observations and off-kilter neighbourhood tales from up above the billboards and the factories and smoke, delivered with E's idiosyncratic gruff and cracked tone.   1996's debut, 'Beautiful Freak', debuted an album of melancholy pop with a sideways view of the world and a jaundiced but by no means bitter bent that is E's mein, and we find the vintage classic 'Novocaine For The Soul' - "Life is hard/ and so am I...novocaine for the soul/ before I sputter out...", the trip-hop dystopian neighbourhood portrait of  'Susan's House', 'My Beloved Monster' which made it to the Shrek soundtrack, as well as the wispy 'This Could Be Your Lucky Day' with the droll delivery - "...waking up with an ugly face/ Winston Churchill in drag...".   In 1998, Electro Shock Blues, arguably Eels fans greatest and most critically acclaimed album found E contending with a good deal of torment and tragedy in his personal life - his sister had committed suicide, his mother was diagnosed with cancer, and he'd lost several close friends, yet out comes this glory box of music with some of E's most elevated songwriting. '3 Speed' sounds nostalgic in tone with woodwind and steel pedal and a cry from E to tell him what's going on - "...life is funny but not ha ha funny/ peculiar I guess/ you think I've got it all going my way/ then why am I such a fucking mess...", as the dearly departed in the magnificent 'Last Stop: This Town' get down with the scratchy beats and grungy guitar as angels soar from on high - "You're dead but the world keeps spinning...", whilst a Jon Brion remix of 'Climbing Up To The Moon' tinkers with what is already an ethereal flight of fancy "...before I go out of my mind/ over matters/ got my foot on the ladder/ and I'm, climbing up to the moon...".