Customer Reviews

Beautiful Freak [Explicit]

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Awesome experimental debut for Butch, Tommy, and "E". I bought this album recently after seeing the Abandoned Pools in concert (Tommy is the lead singer) but hadn't heard anything off of it besides "Novacaine" on the radio and "My Beloved Monster" from Shrek. Boy was I missing out.

I'm more of an 'experimental' Eels fan; albums like Beautiful Freak and Electro-shock are better in my opinion just because of the extreme diversity between songs. From the quasi-piano balled of the title track to the pure rock and roll number "Mental", E and the crew keep you guessing.

Lyrically, the sardonic humor really shines here; especially on "Susan's House" which really paints a nice story (albeit it jumps from one place to another in a town). E is a better ironic-writer than beck and a lot more self-deprecating and expressive ("Everyday they rain down on me, flower in a hailstorm")

If you're in 'one of those moods' or just looking for something interesting from a very talented group of musicians, look no further than The Eels.

I'll admit it. I was reeled in by the single 'Novocaine For The Soul.' It's a song you'll be humming to yourself over and over. Fortunately, the rest of the album is also quite good. There are some songs you could give a miss, but then there are works of genius such as 'Susan's House,' a spoken-word tune that would make you laugh if it wasn't so sad. 'Flower' is affecting in it's gentleness, and 'Spunky' is just sublime. With lines like 'Spunky looks good in her bright red wig, eating chocolate chip mint ice-cream/A cat named Lola with a violent past, is balled-up asleep 'cross her knees" it's that kind of song which makes you take a time out from everyday life and take a deep, life-affirming breath. Even though this album is stacked with sad songs, there's an uplifting quality about them. It took me a while to get into the album, so you might need to play it a few times.

Beautiful freak is a haunting cd. The eels have a truly original sound. This is a cd for a person who is tired of all of the same old music and is looking for something more original.

Mark Everett had already made some albums under the name of "E". 'Beautiful Freak' was the first album under the name of Eels, hoping that his E albums would be standing next to the new ones, totally forgetting about bands like the Eagles.

The first track of this album to be released is the indie-classic 'Novocaine for the soul' with a great sample and piano intro. Many instruments are used on this album. Piano, Guitar, Banjo and many samples making it an interesting album to listen to. There are no bad songs and some very good ones. Beloved Monster is fun, Spunky very sweet. The quality of songs got better after this album, but this one is very diverse.

This record is simply amazing. I've yet to hear another album that flows so well from track to track--almost seamlessly. Eels mastermind E is always coming up with better than great stuff (just check out any other Eels album for proof) and really established a high-water mark here on the first Eels album. The melodies, all simple, almost childlike at times, are straightforward and reel you in immediately. The opening track "Novocaine For The Soul," the song for which the band is known largely to the public, is a wonderful pop creation, pure ear candy. The narrative "Susan's House," a spoken/sung track that incorporates a jazzy upright bass sound, an old school hip-hoppish drumbeat sound, and a Gladys Knight & The Pips piano sample into the chorus, is the most experimental track here, for a band known for mucho experimentation, but it still sounds as flawless and like something you could hear on the radio (that is, if radio actually paid any attention to the Eels) as the other tracks.
As always, E's lyrics deal with his usual stuff--chronicles of his status as the smart, cynical, too-cool for mass consumption outsider ("Guest List"), then there are the character sketches ("Beautiful Freak.") It's been a few years since this came out, and there are a lot more songwriters that write similar lyrics to E, but nobody does this stuff better than E.

The greatest word to describe this album is beautiful. It starts off with Novocain for the Soul, which has a sort of nostalgic theme while reminding me of a music box. The record goes on to Beautiful Freak, which has haunting piano music and vocals, to ending with Manchild, the only song on the album which hasn't completely captured me, simply because of the girl whining in the background. This is an extremely solid album. While alot of people think it's depressing, I find it rather affirming and certainly uplifting. Its soft, skillful, poignant music has that magical ability to take you to some emotional place you've never been, where you aren't completely happy but you're perfectly content with everything and wouldn't change any of it.

The lyrics, on paper, seem highly disregardable, but when the singer E embraces them, they have more meaning than anyone ever imagined. His voice is pregnant with a contagious emotion that you cannot help but absorb.

When, on TV, somebody requested Eels with 'Novocaine for the soul' , I was curious about the group. Never heared of them, a new band. When the song was over, I knew this had to be my next album. E's raw voice and the simple but beautiful melody of the songs make this a great album and one of the best debut albums I 've ever heared in my entire life. Sadly enough 'Elektro shock blues' wasn't quite as powerfull, I'm hoping to hear more of them soon. Anyone, please, mail news of a third album to me, because in Belgium it's very hard to find CD's of unknown American talent like Eels.

I purchased this album used in 1997 having liked the songs "Novacaine for the Soul" & "Rags To Rags" which both played on the local alt-rock station. Once I put it in my Cd player it stayed in there for a month as I loved it, every song was to my liking. The stand outs besides the before mentioned songs for me were "Guest List", "Not Ready Yet", & "Your Lucky Day In Hell". I then went out and bought E's earlier albums. "Broken Toy Shop" and "A Man Called E", both were pretty good although I greatly prefered "Broken Toy Shop" to "A Man Called E". If you like this album I would suggest these two to you.

Interesting enough I found when visiting their web site in 1997 I found this album posted in a new sound format (mp3) my first encounter with this now mainstream format and before it was endlessly traded on the many file sharing networks that would later spring up and hurt bands like the Eels.

I am attracted by their lack of energy. Everything seems to be so light, especially the soft drum and the singer that never pushes his voice.

Sometimes they just become too much lullaby and it is getting so... boring like in "Beautiful freak", "Flower" and "Spunky".

On the other side, beautiful "Mental" could have gone really mental. For sure, I am attracted by the harder songs of this album like "Novacaine","Not ready yet", "Rag to rags" and "My beloved monster". But I also like song like "Guest list" and "Your lucky day in hell" mainly for the beat of the drum.

i have made many terrible buys in my short existence, but eels made up for every single one of them. over the years i have listened to this cd so many times in its entire entity and e never fails to allow my world-weary mind to drift off into the almighty reverie of sleep. so many of my dreams are captured in each of his lyrical words. listen - sleep - dream . . .