Customer Reviews

Electro-Shock Blues

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The sound-songs with many samples and grooves have never compelled me in the eels. It is sometimes a little too much. Unfortunately half of this album are songs like this. Fortunately there are also some very beautiful 'songs'.

Songs like Climbing Up To The Moon and Ant Farm are acoustic, slow songwriter higlights on this album. 3 Speed has the best lyrics.

A funny song is Last Stop This Town. A fun, uptempo happy song which falls a little out of place but it maybe the best song on the album. Another good eels album.

I was randomly searching through some different bands here on Amazon the other day and I was bored as hell. Basically, I was hoping, praying to come across something that blew me away. After hours of nothing I stumbled across a man named E and his band The Eels. I started the clip of "Going to Your Funeral pt.1" and I had found what I was looking for. I was blown away. I rushed out the buy this CD and listen after listen , the disc holds the intensity that blew me away in the first place. This album, and this band had cured me of my boredom with today's typical musical tundra!!!!

If you listen to music other than what is on the radio, you HAVE to try this CD. It is all at once, beautiful, troubling, funny, intense, accessable, and scary.

Wow...what can be said about "Electro-Shock Blues" that other people on here haven't said about it yet? Well, I'll start by saying it's truly one of the greatest and most beautiful albums I've ever heard and for that, it's in my Top 5 list for sure.

Unlike alot of other people, this record took no time to grow on me at all. I immediately fell in love with it. Everything about it. I loved the idea's and feelings that ran throughout the entire album, the way the songs flowed together, how the tracks were listed as a "side A" and a "side B", even the way it was packaged - and it hit me at just the right time in my life. And I know it sounds kind of dumb, but during some troubled times when things weren't going that great, it really felt like this album was there.

I'll never forget the first time I layed down on my bed and listened to this album all the way through. That's when I noticed the most beautiful thing about it - All the sad feelings and thoughts of death expressed early on in the album gradually change into feelings of hope, happiness, and life towards the end. It takes you on an incredible journey. Please do yourself a big favor and pick it up.

I gotta start off by saying that I'm no music critic. In fact, most of the reviews that I've posted have gotten an overwhelming amount of "no, this review was NOT helpful"'s. But this is something I have to do. I HAVE to keep on getting people to buy this gorgeous album and rate it so that the average user rating is 5 stars. Get it? Buy this album, and rate it 5 stars because this is perhaps my favorite cd of all time.

It wasnt until last summer that I started to listen to the eels religiously, and this is the album that started my rampage. It's gorgeous from beginning to end (even baby genius, probably the most hated track on the cd). Mark Oliver Everett (or E), vocals for Eels, wrote this album about death, or death around him, and how he dealt with it. When he was 18 (or 19) he saw his father have a heart attack and die. I believe that year his sister also tried to kill herself. She succeeded years later during the Eels tour in europe. E's mother was also diagnosed with cancer and he was soon to become the last remaining member of his family. I love this cd, not only because of the beautiful lyrics, but because if flows so perfectly together, from the haunting first tracks to the powerful accoustic numbers near the end. And its also really cool to see the change, musically, that the eels went through with each of their albums. Truly Beautiful.

For those of you who don't know who the Eels are or are not sure if you have heard them before than let me help you out. You may have heard their first single from the mid-nineties entitled "Novocaine for the Soul". It received some MTV spin but mostly late at night when the good videos are shown. The Eels than dropped off the pop music radar until the movie "Road Trip" came out. If you are between the ages of 17 and 30 I'm sure you've seen it and heard the Eels song "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" with the chorus of "--- Damn right it's a beautiful day, uh-huh". The surprising thing is that neither of these songs are representative of the Eels sound. The lead singer E knows that too which is why he wouldn't even list this song on Daises of the Galaxy, the cd it's on. It's a hidden track.
With this said I have to state that the music you haven't heard is the best. The span of years during which the Eels "fell off the radar" are highlighted by this excellent cd I am reviewing here. As stated in the other reviews, E wrote these songs following the death of his mother from cancer and his sister from suicide, and you can tell. The words are extremely depressing but sincere. You almost have to know the background in order to truly enjoy the songs. The eels also employ an orchestra which create beautiful music.
I feel as if this cd could be the Hope diamond in the rough. It truly embodies the way songwriting should be, heartfelt and sincere. I would not start here if you are a fan of the two popular songs I discussed earlier, in fact, I would look elsewhere. None of the Eels cds truly appeal to the majority and take quite a few dedicated listens to truly appreciate. If you do feel like taking the time to listen repetitively to the true storytelling of the Eels, however, than most definitely this is the album to buy.
My favorite cd I own.

Scarred by the death of his mother and sister, this masterpiece was always going to be subdued. Yet its beauty thrives off E's vocal simplicity and his ability to implicity evoke messages through subtle lyrics. 'Last Stop This Town' is a wonderful figurative piece engraved with euphanisms, as through is restrained voice he chokes 'Its getting dark a little too early, are you missing the dearly bereft?' Although undervalued upon its first hearing, the album grows with time to emerge as a collection of songs simply incomparable with any of its peers. Infectious at times (my descent into madness) and thoughtful at others,its only defect being the occasional filler (baby genius), Electric Shock Blues is a masterful album whose beauty will prevent you from reaching for the anti-depressants.

I got this CD three-and-a-half years ago after hearing "Last Stop: This Town" on a compilation CD that was being handed out at a ski resort. After all that time, Electro-Shock Blues is still one of my favorite CD's. It incorporates indie rock, punk, folk, jazz, gospel, and even industrial rock into an amazing mix, resulting in each song being a trip into another world, a world of depression, cancer, suicide, and ultimately hope. Although the tracks are sequenced to tell a story, they are all great on their own, and each have a unique sound. Sort of like Radiohead's Amnesiac album. If you like honest, experimental music, do not hesitate to buy this.

Some records you like--some records you love--and some records change your life. This record changed my life.

Yes, it's the story of how songwriter E deals with the death of his mother and the suicide of his sister, but don't think it's a total bummer of a disc. It's not.

Sure, you'll travel over some rough emotional terrain while listening--but you'll be glad to be there. The record has an arc to it, from beginning to end, and keeps me listening intently all the way through, every time. (How many records can you say that about, truly?)

The CD ends on a life-affirming note that feels genuine. Throughout, the songs are catchy, varied and musically quite interesting.

If you think Pink Floyd's The Wall is a good concept record, check this one out. If you like the idea of some ungodly combination of Captain Beefheart and Ween, dig into all eels records. Electro-Shock Blues, especially, is a must-hear.

Usually the best concept albums are once drawn from pure emotion. Using music as his venting post, E recorded to recover from the deaths of his mother and sister. The result is simply brilliant.

The opening track is quite possibly the most saddening, sporting the most haunting imagery in a song title that I can remember. The subsequent tracks, all through the end of PS You Rock My World (with exception to Baby Genuis- I'm just not all that crazy about it), are all winners, with the major highlight going to "My Descent Into Madness" with its understated "La-la-la"s and repeating violins.

If you aren't familiar with the Eels, than this is the album to start with; and if you have Beautiful Freak, Daisies, and/or Souljacker, but not this, than you are missing E at his peak performance.

(Also a side note- E is consistently compared to Beck and I'd like to take this time to explain why. First off, E and Beck both have almost identical voices. They also are experimental in their sounds and layers- though Beck is the much more experimental of the two. What seperates them is the Eels are more subtle with their style, while Beck tends to be outragous and more and more hip-hop driven.)