World Of Shit
 Oct 17th, 2001
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Superior lo - fi
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Superior lo - fi
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Yes
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  kfingleton
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Do you really need to know anything about me? It's not as if we'll ever meet. It's pretty obvious ...
Member since:13.12.2000
Reviews:124
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Review rated by 24 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
Souljacker is Mark ‘E’ Everett’s fourth album proper under the guise of Eels and he has again produced a masterpiece. Strangely for an American bad Eels have been pretty productive over the years and this is their third album in a year and a half. But the quality does not suffer due to the productivity of the man called E. For those of you who don’t know Eels (which begs the question, "why are you reading a review of their new album"), they are a lo-fi American indie band. Everyone’s heard Novocain For The Soul and possibly Mr E’s Beautiful Blues (uh-hu). E has gained the reputation for being the most unlucky man in rock over the years after a string of personal tragedies that inspired the dark (but wonderful) Electro-Shock Blues back in 1998, which may not seem like a long time ago, but in those days things were simpler and the English hated David Beckham. 2000 saw E reinvigorated after a trip to a Buddist Monastery and Daisies of the Galaxy was a more upbeat affair. But now to 2001: A Taste Oddity (sorry about the pun) and Souljacker.
The sleeve art looks like a horrible student newspaper, cut-n-paste job and E looks suspiciously like the Unabomber according to some, but inside it you get to see him ride a tractor-mower, which is worth your ten quid all on its own. The album is mighty short with only twelve short songs. Another point of note is that the Souljacker was a serial killer (no he did not kill Coco Pops) who claimed to steal his victim’s
souls. Anywho, onto the tracks... It begins with a fuzzy guitar riff, reminiscent of the more guitar-orientated Eels debut, Beautiful Freak (electric guitars are more prevalent throughout this album than in any of the last three). Dog Faced Boy is about a girl E once knew, who was very hairy. It’s a catchy opener with the superb chorus line "You little punks think you own this town / Well someday someone’s gonna bring you down". Reassurring!
That’s Not Really Funny is a more sombre track, especially in the tin-pan clanging of the verses, but in between their is all sorts of weird and wonderful loud sounds. It is a strange track, similar to Cancer For The Cure on Electro-Shock Blues in many ways. If you don’t know that song...well tough. Fresh Feeling is a strange song because it uses a sample...of an Eels song. You might be forgiven for accusing E of running short of ideas, but he has taken my favourite Eels song, the quite wonderful and inspiring Selective Memory and turned it into something a little different. FF isn’t as good as the song it steals itself from, but if you use a great song, you’re going to get a good song from that too. (Unless you’re Puffy Diddy or whatever his name is).
Woman Driving Man Sleeping is an almost trippy song. It is very dreamy, so laid back, it’s almost horizontal. In fact, it’s perfect for driving to in the middle of the night or relaxing as you wind along slow country lanes. Whether the song is a metaphor for adult relationships or just a bout a woman driving and a man sleeping remains to be seen. Souljacker Part 1 is the first single to be taken off the album by the evil corporate capitalist types down at the record company. It’s actually not instantly that catchy and you’ll need to hear it at least 3 times to get it into your head. But then you won’t get it out because that driving verse sticks to you like glue and every so often you’ll be shouting "Oh Yeah!" in the middle of the street and people will give you a dirty look and think you’re weird. But it won’t matter because you’ll have a good song in your head, while they’ll have the new 5ive single in theirs. Everybody now, "Sisters, brothers..."
Friendly Ghost is a poppy little number that will get you nodding your head, but feels a little insubstantial and airy in such dense company. I don’t mean that it’s insubstantial in a bad way, but it doesn’t completely fit with the rest of this album and seems like it should have been on Daisies... instead. Teenage Witch is my least favourite track on the album. Again it’s not a bad song, but it isn’t quite up to the standard of the other tracks on the album. A little lack on inspiration is evident on this one in my view. It’s not catchy, it’s not melancholic, it’s a little lost.
Bus Stop Boxer is again a subdued affair, but the lyrics are superb (about a sound engineer who was encouraged by his father to fight at the bus stop as a kid). It’s a very strong, but very mellow track. Jungle Telegraph wins hands down for the Obscure Lyrics Contest. It seems to be about tarzan or something. It’s a little weird, but the brass section is superb. Catchier than the common cold, as it happens. You’ll be humming this one and all.
Somewhat typically of E, the love-song on this album (written about the new Mrs E) is called World Of Shit. "In this world of shit / Baby you are it" Simple, but effective lyrics although I wouldn’t go as far as to use it as a chat-up line when spotting a delicious young lady at the bar. This song is mellow and lovely and the music complements the theme superbly. The penultimate track is Souljacker Part 2, a song that has nothing to do with Part 1 and deals directly with Mr. Souljacker himself. "Souljacker can’t get my soul / Put my carcass in a black manhole". Hmm, not exactly a beautiful image. This is the shortest song on the album, it’s almost like an afterthought, although it’s too good for that.
The final track was likened by the NME (I think) to Graham Coxon (whose latest album, I will review next. Excited?), but this seems a bit pointless, considering only music magazines and me ever seem to listen to Graham Coxon. But it does sound very like Graham Coxon. Comparisons could also be drawn with the guitar over-drive of Accelerator by Primal Scream. What is this Note? Lacks the grandness of it’s predecessors on Electro-Shock Blues and Daisies of the Galaxy, but it’s still a catchy song. It’s got punk and spunk and all sorts of gunk (gunk?). And concludes the album in perfectly chaotic style. The album also has a bonus CD, but it’s just a big con to get you to buy the album and the songs are decidedly weak. And anyway, when the proper album’s so good, you don’t need any more enticing. It’s not Eels finest work to date, although compared to most of the music that has come out this year (take a bow Starsailor, Muse, Embrace et al) it’s practically genius. If you’re going to the shops this weekend (or any other subsequent weekend that you happen to be reading this on) there are few finer albums from this year to choose from, although you may be wiser to invest in album’s by Radiohead or Mercury Rev, in my view.) Ta for reading.
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17.10.2001 17:56
Not really my cup of tea i'm afraid, but the op is great, and i couldnt resist reading the op with a title like that now could i???!!! Mel x
17.10.2001 17:35
I've been on a superior and more reliable site. Don't expect me to be round here much with idiots giving me stupid ratings.
17.10.2001 17:34
Ah, long time no see Kevin, where have you been? and whats with the UH rating?...Brian