Customer Reviews

Shootenanny

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I hate this type of comparison, but here goes: if you took Wilco, made a young Tom Waits their singer, and forced them to stick to more traditional Blues-based forms, you'd have something akin to Eels.

The subtitle of SHOOTENANNY!--"Everybody Knows These Are Rock Hard Times"--says it all. The album plays like a deep blue depression on a sunny day, pounding along across it's own unique aural landscape. Some of the more fatalistic stuff is hard to take repeatedly, but "Saturday Morning" is stunning and, while most of the rest of the album is sure-fire Alt Rock, there are moments towards the end, like "Numbered Days," which have some kind of late 60s/early 70s atmosphere to them.

SHOOTENANNY! has been in my short stack of CDs for a month now; it's inspiration may not be unique but the effect the Eels create is.

I've always enjoyed E's stuff, and the Eels...very good indeed. But, this is perhaps E's masterpiece and arguably the Best Album of the Year thus far. At just over 40 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome (like so many who think they must use 50-60 minutes of a CD, even if half of it is filler), and leaves you coming back for more time and again. Great E-Pop with some very hard-edged guitar riffs thrown in - a perfect balance, really. Don't miss this one - all of E and the Eels promise finally comes together. Awesome.

Every time an Eels CD comes out, there is ALWAYS the usual grumbling about it not being up to par, etc. It was that way for every release. Then, in time, the album shows itself for what it really is. I believe this album is the best Eels album to date. Clearly he is going for a succinct, direct sound and message without pretense. It's direct, human and great! I could hear Muddy Water's singing the lyric of "Love Of The Loveless." Well done, again, Eels.

The Eels have released several great albums during the past years, but for every radio friendly 'Last Stop: This Town' you got several 'Souljackers'. Don't get me wrong, I love the Eels, no matter if they play straight forward rock or more complex material. So I do not think, that they are selling out at all on this album. In fact, this album shows, what a great songwriter Mark Oliver Everett really is and the CD will hopefully attract an even wider fan base. There are great rock songs (All in a Day's Work, Saturday Morning, Dirty Girl, Wrong about Bobby), beautiful ballads (The good old Days, Rock Hard Times) and also some 'old style' Eels (Love of the Loveless, Agony, Lone Wolf) material on here. If you never bought an Eels album or if you couldn't quite connect to their older material, give this CD a try. It's definitely one of the best releases this year so far. And as the CD says : Everybody knows these are rock hard times....

I don't think America has ever fully understood Mark Oliver Everett (aka E or Mr. E) and the music he's made as part of the EELS. Shootenanny! is the band's 5th proper release and their most accessible to date. That being said, I don't think Shootenanny! is an attempt to get America to understand the EELS or for them to start selling millions of albums, but rather the opportunity for E to do something he doesn't normally do - write your typical pop/rock song without too much of the quirkiness that marked many of the band's previous releases, and for him to break free of the image of himself as a chronically depressed genius with a knack for turning generally positive phrases, such as "I love you," into some of the most devastating and defeating words ever. (Well, losing your father, mother, and sister - all within a year - will do that to you.)

"All In A Day's Work" begins Shootenanny! with a slow snarl of an electric guitar before the ominous bass guitar and drums take over darkly marching towards E's distorted vocals. The disc's single, "Saturday Morning," ironically enough is the most typical EELS track on Shootenanny! with E's switch to an almost taunting falsetto on the chorus over Butch's pounding drums leading to a wall of distorted guitars. "Love Of The Loveless" and "Rock Hard Times" despite their titles are two of the album's most upbeat and best tracks. "Loveless" includes typical EELS signatures - that casio keyboard and a bridge that slows the song to a crawl; and "Rock Hard" is one of the best unheard pop songs of all of 2003 with its bouncy rhythm, its bright electric guitar, its whistling guitars, and its chorus of self-empowerment: "everybody knows these are rock hard times / i gotta make it through / these are rock hard times." One of my favorite couplets of last year is in "Dirty Girl" with its opening lyrics: "i like a girl with a dirty mouth / someone that i can believe." "Agony" could have been on the EELS 2001 tortured opus Electro-Shock Blues (the disc written, recorded, etc around the loss of E's family) with it's vibraphone trill giving way to solitary lower chords on the casio followed by Butch's overpowering drums and the fuzzed electric guitar cutting through it all.

"Restraining Order Blues" follows in a line of tradition for E - a song that ends in "Blues" but isn't quite bluesy: Electro-Shock Blues title track, Daisies Of The Galaxy's "Grace Kelly Blues" & "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues," Soujacker B-side "Rotten World Blues," the Holes soundtrack cut "Mighty Fine Blues," and the E-scored Levity soundtrack piece "Post-Flashback Blues." "Lone Wolf" features an organ that wouldn't be out of place if it were a pedal steel or slide guitar and "Wrong About Bobby" sounds vaguely Elliott Smith-ish. There's something lurking under the surface to "Numbered Days" that is never fully realized accentuating its view that death is always around the corner. E resorts back to the falsetto and includes a string section in "Fashion Awards," a track about the recent glut of awards shows filling our airwaves and the emotions displayed on many of their podiums. Shootenanny! closes with the optimistic "Somebody Loves You" echoing "Love Of The Loveless" and its reassurance that we've gotta take care of ourselves and even though that somebody who loves us might just be ourselves, "you're gonna make it through."

Shootenanny! is a fine album that might disappoint a few long-time EELS fans since the despair isn't as pronounced and a lot of those little touches that mark most EELS releases are gone with production focused more on that of a live band rather than highlighting a glockenspiel, handbell, Wurlitzer, or particularly interesting keyboard line. E has claimed himself as "John Paul Sartre with a Marshall stack" and he wouldn't be entirely wrong as he rocks hard in these existential times.

Fave tracks: "Love Of The Loveless," "Dirty Girl," "Rock Hard Times."

This is a rare artist where it's best not to decide which single album is best. Doing so only helps those unfamiliar with the artist decide which ONE album to buy. Spend the money and buy ALL of the Eeels albums out there - you won't be disappointed. Unless of course you don't enjoy strikingly insightful lyrics wrapped in musical arrangements that defy nearly every other artist working today. Need proof of his lyrical talent? From "Somebody Loves You":

This nagging malaise
Is more than a phase
It feels like a job
But no boss ever pays you to lay there
And think how you'll die
While the tears start to well in your eyes

Depressing? Yeah, when read like the poetry that it is, but coupled with the sweeping orchestral chorus that reinforces the message that "somebody loves you, you're going to make it through" - it's hard to not to feel invigorated by the talent of this artist.

EBHP

From my first sight of Beautiful Freak two years ago, lead singer/lone wolf band member (not forgetting drummer Butch) E continues to pleasantly surprise me with his increasingly incendiary music. From the poppy edges of BF that attracted me to this band in the first place, to the utter heartbreak and/or soul searching of Electro-Shock Blues (thus far my second fav album by E), to the light at the end of the tunnel of Daises of the Galaxy, to the BUS-STOP BOXER in all of us through Souljacker, and now to Shootenanny! my, by far, favorite album by this great "band" (yeah, I'll call them a band). The first two songs of the thirteen are a bit weak but the remaining eleven are rides you won't want to make just once. From buying this album yesterday I haven't quit listening to it yet there's just something so appealing about the EELS and E that it's impossible to describe in words. This album exceeded my expectations of what E was capable of, hitting me in all of the pressure points, really touching my soul in a way few thing ever do. I thank God for the day he introduced me to E and his little band called the EELS that day two years ago. I've never looked back and look foward eagerly to the band's April release of their new effort: "Blinking Lights and other Revelations." To E: Keep them coming man, keep em coming.

E and Butch have been producing rock of the finest quality for years. While Souljacker was full fledged rock, in Shootenanny E emerges somehow having found how to mix some rockin' folk with the melancholy we loved in Electroshock Blues. All I can do is stand back and say: "how did this happen? I'm toe-tappin' happy and drip-droppin' wishing life was better." What?!? you say. Yeah, that's what E does that no one else is on to. You're happy, you're diggin' the folk twang, you want more, and yet you can also sit back and honestly, nostalgically say: these are rock hard times.
Now that E has emerged above the clouds of CMJ indie kids and come into a realm where there is no one but E, the kind of unique realms of rock dwelt in by the likes of Beck, guys who are flying solo and continue to amaze, we can say: enough talk, just enjoy Eels.

You'll find fewer hard bass/drum effects or noise distortions on the Eel's latest evolution. (Think less "Cancer for the Cure" and more "Friendly Ghost".) In fact, many of the tracks on "Shootenanny" sound as if they would have fit perfectly on Beck's latest album (for example, the bittersweet "Good Old Days"), if you want to get a feel for the vibe. (I intend the comparison in a same-vein sense and am in no way implying a knock-off, as both artists are absolutely incredible in their own right(s).) The sound's kind of bluesy, kind of low-key rock...but always fascinating and completely original. Unlike most bands, the Eels never stumble backwards or produce an album inferior to the one prior; it's always forward-moving and brilliantly reinvented.

Personally, I love this album. Adore it. In my opinion, it ranks up with "ElectroShock Blues" as one of the Eel's greatest accomplishments. Granted, you don't know me personally and the opinion of a complete stranger probably bears no significance in your mind...but I'm still going to name my favorite tracks, in case you're even remotely interested: "Dirty Girls" and "Wrong About Bobby".

In short, it's a great album. If you like the Eels...then you'll like "Shootenanny".

There you have it. My review. *takes a bow*

Briefly it seemed as if the Eels had lost their way. 2001's failed experimentation on Souljacker left a vast chunk of the band's dedicated following slightly disillusioned with their anti-heroes. Whilst that album can in no way be classified as bad, for the most part it lacked the quirky melodies and offbeat arrangements that the band has become synonomous with (Woman Sleeping, Man Driving and Fresh Feeling being notable exceptions). Shootenanny comes off like the record E was previously aiming for. Skipping effortlessly from Beautiful Freak era spikey pop rock to morose Electro Shock Blues style laments via sweet as pie Daisies-esque jaunts, Shootenanny showcases the Eels genre hopping tendencies in all their eclectic glory.

Opening track All In A Days Work sounds like it could have been a stand out track off Souljacker while Love Of The Loveless is pure Daisies genius. Once again collaborating with DJ Killingspree, this time to much greater effect, E's songwriting contains a tone that is more contented than before without ever losing any of his lovable loser persona. Restraining Order Blues, Lone Wolf and Dirty Girl show E stating his alienation more blatantly than before but with a new spin, as if the frontman has now become comfortable in his role and is maybe starting to enjoy it.

There is precious little not to like about Shootenanny. Far more immediate and infectious than it's predecessor, it acts as the meeting point of all the Eels various styles while maintaining a continuity and character all of it's own. Only time will tell if Shootenanny will have the longevity of Daisies Of The Galaxy, Electro Shock Blues or Beautiful Freak but for now take it for what it is; classic Eels.