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Mark Oliver “E” Everett is the linchpin of Eels. The band that surrounds him changes in personnel frequently, and has had no constant members since its formation. Eels’ 1996 debut Beautiful Freak was a critical and commercial success, and subsequent appearances on the Shrek soundtracks have brought them even greater exposure.
With stardom beckoning, the period between Beautiful Freak and its follow-up, Electro-Shock Blues, saw a sudden shift in E’s life. His sister, Liz, committed suicide, and his mother, Nancy, succumbed to lung cancer. Having himself discovered his father (renowned physicist Dr. Hugh Everett III) dead from a heart attack many years previous, E was left to come to terms with being the only surviving member of his family.
The album that followed is seemingly a direct product of these developments, and the tragic circumstances are deeply ingrained in E's lyrics. Whereas some might presume such an album to be depressing, Electro-Shock Blues is anything but; experienced as a whole, the collection of 16 songs acts as a poignant soundtrack to the natural transition from E's grief and potential breakdown to his discovery of life's true value, ultimately proving not only cathartic, but also inspirational.
Opening track ‘Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor’ is a depiction of one of Liz’s failed suicide attempts. E’s partially falsetto vocals display a gentle weakness, backed by a minimal, almost pretty, guitar part; enough to give goosebumps to the context-aware listener. It fades into dissonance by the end, as if representing a loss of consciousness.
Many of the songs on Electro-Shock Blues have similarly delicate instrumental arrangements, hinting at the past beauty of their subjects, but equally, proving so minimal as to feel hollow, showing such sweetness simply not to be there anymore.
A number of these songs are based on entries from Liz’s journal during her time spent, schizophrenic, in a psychiatric hospital. ‘3 Speed’ seems to long for lost childhood innocence, and ‘Electro-Shock Blues’ is, with few words, a heartbreaking account of the methods of the mental home, and the temporary relief given by antidepressants.
Elsewhere on the album, singles ‘Cancer For The Cure’ and ‘Last Stop: This Town’ are louder and more rhythmically driven. The former grinds with anger and pain, in spite of retaining E’s trademark sense of humour; the latter is upbeat, showing the love of sampling which featured on earlier singles such as ‘Susan’s House’, and including lyrics about Liz’s return as a ghost for one final fly over their hometown before her ascent to Heaven (an ascent alluded to later on, in the beautiful 'Climbing To The Moon').
The final three songs of the album are revelatory. ‘Dead of Winter’ starkly illustrates Nancy’s painful death with an unhealthy-sounding acoustic guitar, whilst ‘The Medication is Wearing Off’ samples jangly broken chords and contains abstract lyrics involving suicide and time passing.
‘P.S. You Rock My World’ closes the album with E’s discovery of the value of life amongst all the death. Opening with the line “I was at a funeral the day I realised I wanted to spend my life with you” and closing with the final thought that “maybe it’s time to live…” E shows that a vital optimism can be drawn from all the heartbreak that has come before.
It really is cathartic stuff, powerful and inspirational. But above all, it's true, and aside from the fact that the songs themselves are great, perhaps that’s where its power lies.
If you would like to hear Electro-Shock Blues, it can be bought cheaply here, here, and elsewhere.
He played York a couple of years ago with just one other band member (the Chet??) and was awesome. The night started with the doc' about his dad, which was odd, then was an hour-and-half of fantastic performances punctuated by little stories from E's life. One particular story related to this album and I will never listen to it in the same way ever again.
Awesome! (Good article too).
I remember that gig well, certainly among the best I've been to. The Chet is a man of many talents, and for them to play 'Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor' was particularly unexpected and rather affecting.
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