Eels chill out with their Melancholy Blues (Daisies Of The Galaxy - Eels)

Member Name: hipchikcvic

Product:	Daisies Of The Galaxy - Eels
Date:	08/01/01 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Perhaps the best album of 2000

Disadvantages: none

Every time Eels sit down and record an album,they take a new direction. Their hugely successful first LP, Beautiful Freak, spawned a very eager fan base that almost demanded a rerun the second time around.

Instead, they recorded and album so dark and inward looking that much of the Radio 1 audience dissapeared and the band became less commercially viable.

That they would then record a third album so beautiful in its construction and so genuine in its feel is typical.Those who bailed out after Electro Shock Blues have really missed a gem.

Daisies Of The Galaxy should be considered an antidote to the dark moody theme of the previous album. It contains 14 of the most sickly sweet beautiful songs you will ever hear on a single record. Each is excellent in its own right, and wehen placed together, they combine to creat somethign that can only be described as a work of genius.

The very fact that the record company had to commision an extra track to include just to justify a single release says more abot this album than words could. This is not an album of singles, it is an album of songs. The fact that eels now recognise they are no longer a multi-platinum selling artist has allowed them to develop their art and fine tune it, freed from the constraints placed on them by the insatiable demand for three-minute masterpieces.

This is a common them among bands that used to be considered 'famous' - it freed up Carter USM to produce their greatest work, it has since happened to artists as diverse as Lou Reed and Teenage Fanclub. Commerciality stifles music - just look at the whole host of produced boy-bands that perpetuate.

'Flyswatter' deviates towards the darness seen on the previous albums, but comes up smelling of roses, and the instrumental 'Estate Sale' -written abotut he selling off of old antiquiteis owned by the lead singer E's mother - is wonderfully dark and introspective whilst being a
great piece of music.

The gems of the album have to be 'Tiger In My Tank', 'Wooden Nickles' which is a true masterpiece and the closing titel 'Selective Memory'. But theother eleven (twelve on the UK release) tracks all hold up well.

Eels have taken music back to its simplest form and jsut wrtten a host of catchy melodies and great songs. Yes, the mood is not the same as that the band had in their opening days - there are no riff based masterpieces here, barely a distorted guitar is heard - but the whole production just oozes class.

If you're looking for a new artist, and if you like good, solid, honest pop music, Eels are a safe bet. You will not be dissapointed.

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