Whoever said pop music is all bad obviously hasn't heard the Eels.
With a keen ear for upbeat music and an obvious appreciation for all things musical, Eels mastermind "E," or Mark Oliver Everett, has made a name for himself in the alternative rock scene by trying a bit of everything while keeping it simple enough for the audience not to get lost.
The Eels' latest effort, "Shootenanny!" is the kind of eclectic rock album we haven't seen since Ween's 1994 classic "Chocolate and Cheese." Although "Shootenanny!" does not trump Ween's weirdness, the album's ability to evoke comparisons to Morphine, Tom Petty, the Smashing Pumpkins and Beck, to name a few, allows it to stand on its own as a solid album through and through.
The album's opening track sets the collective piece up nicely. "All in a Day's Work," a simplistic, grimy, blues-laced track, complete with gritty vocals and a harmonica solo, segues nicely between thumping blues into dreamy chords and back again. Like most of the album's tracks, it's nothing like the song before or the song after. That's not a criticism.
Take "Fashion Awards" as an example. As a lullaby guitar hook soothes the ear, E chimes in with a satisfyingly off-key falsetto, crooning "Let's go down to the fashion show/with all the pretty people that we don't know/We'll sit down in their velvet chairs/they'll hand awards out for best hair/and if we don't win one well then/we'll blow off our heads in despair." The song wisely avoids kicking it into high gear, allowing it to come off like a frightening, tripped out episode of "Mister Rogers."
E's pop sensibility knows no bounds, which is evident on "Saturday Morning," a first person account of a child's early morning.
"Dirty Girl," hops and skips like Tom Petty at his peak, and "Wrong About Bobby" is the kind of sing-songy rock that could satisfy any listener.
Even on "Lone Wolf," a foot-stomping, explosive piece of rock ambrosia, the album does not lose its ability to make your feet shuffle, even as E growls about being alone in the world.
But it's not all bounding pop. Straying from the more crowd-pleasing aspects of the album, E's music sensibilities become beyond the obvious.
On "The Good Old Days," E's somber voice, remarkably similar to that of a more mellow Beck, floats over soothing guitar chords, accompanied by little more than a synthesized flute.
Trumping the mood of "The Good Old Days," "Agony" starts off like a mellow trip-hop tune, only to explode at the 1:30 mark into a gloriously somber crescendo. It is one of those rare instances where the lyrical content of the song, primarily dealing with unrealized goals and other depressing realities, is echoed in the accompanying music.
That's not to say the album is all glory though. Tracks like "Rock Hard Times" and "Love the Loveless" run into a bit of redundancy as the same chords are repeated for three minutes, causing a loss of momentum.
But two songs are small change compared to the big picture. By the time the subtly rocking "Somebody Loves You" wraps the album, it's difficult not to start ""Shootenanny!" all over again.
If you liked this, you also might like: Beck's "Mellow Gold" or Ween's "Chocolate and Cheese."
