Review Summary: E proves that through tragedy we can create something indispensable
The Eels (or merely 'Eels', whichever you prefer) are an odd proposition, and no album in Eels' cannon displays this quite as vividly as their 1996 offering Electro-Shock Blues. The sophomore release from (The) Eels finds it's main singer song writer Mark Oliver Everett (or 'E', whichever you prefer) in a harrowing emotional state - stricken with the death of his sister to suicide and his mother to cancer, he finds himself the last remaining member of his family, with his father having succumbed a number of years earlier to a heartattack. As you can imagine, such a gloomy premise would not lend itself easily to shaking the radio stations, but perhaps Electro-Shock's most apparent crowning achievement is that E still manages to claw together some hits, with the suprisingly upbeat 'Last Stop: This Town' and the twisted horror pop of 'Cancer for The Cure'. Beyond these trademark anthems, however, Electro-Shock Blues proves to be a meditatively stark and harrowing listen - perhaps more fitting to E's inner turmoil that few, least of all I, can begin to comprehend.
At the risk of sounding insensitive, it is inescapable that the context of E's personal tragedy does heighten the listen. The often incredibly sobering earnestness that flows throughout the record helps to elevate what would otherwise simply be very pretty compositions into something that little bit more important and affecting. The astoundingly direct 'Dead of Winter' for instance, while a very beautiful acoustic piece, is nonetheless given higher potence through it's lyrical honesty regarding his mother's cancer treatment:
So I know you're going pretty soon
Radiation-sore throat got your tongue
Magic markers tattoo you and show it where to aim
And strangers break their promises
'You won't feel any pain'
It's an incredibly moving combination, given E's gravelly, almost conversational tone. This lyrical power is not to detract from Electro-Shock Blues musically however, as the album explores a diverse range of sounds from the christmas tinged sing along of 'My Descent in To Madness' to what can only be described as lullaby-chillout in 'The Medication is Wearing Off'. It's an incredibly musically inventive collection, but it is here where the album also suffers, being audibly torn between a various range of extreme emotions, from pure anger ('Going to Your Funeral [part 1]'), to unadulterated sadness ('Elizabeth on The Bathroom Floor) and all the way back around to optimistic resolution ('P.S. You Rock My World'). As an album, Electro-Shock Blues simply can't decide what it wants to be, but then that is perhaps the entire point. As trite as this may sound, it is more a document of an emotional journey than a traditional album, and your investment into its context as a listener will greatly determine your enjoyment of it.
Ultimately, while Electro-Shock Blues is messy, it is a profound and often moving document of human tragedy, and more importantly, it's expressed through truly inventive and well-written pop music. Providing you are willing to take the plunge into the sometimes desperately dark emotions it tackles, Electro-Shock Blues truly is a masterpiece of the human spirit.
