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Artist abandons talent on latest

October 4, 2001
Abandoned Pools

Poor Tommy Walter. The former bassist of the influential band eels hasn’t had an easy go around since being fired from the band following its 1996 release “Beautiful Freak.”

He begged eels mastermind (E) for his job. Denied.

He’s begged (E) for forgiveness. Denied.

He then started up the band Tely without any success. Denied.

He’s tried to write smash hits. Denied.

Now here comes “Humanistic,” a kind of “I’m going to point out all of mankind’s shortcomings. Coming from a man who hasn’t much going for him” album. It’s no wonder success through this effort will most likely be, yep, you guessed it, denied.

Fans of eels’ records will realize more than ever than Walter did very little for the band. There are several highlights that salvage this CD, however. For example, “The Remedy” isn’t a bad track, nor is “Mercy Kiss.” The track “Seed” sounds like a Smashing Pumpkins song that didn’t make the cut. And that is the way the rest of the album plays out - inferior to eels records, similar to others’ material.

The bottom line is that this album is not groundbreaking. It’s nothing like an eels record. It’s the stereotypical nonbreakthrough album on a minor label: It’s just nothing special - not bad, but not great either.

But at least the cover art rules. At least Walter’s got that going for him.

Go Tommy.

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