405) Eels - Electro-Shock Blues

Eels had made a huge impression with their debut album so their record company must have been excited when the band delivered their second record.

However, there was a problem lead man Mark Everett’s sister had committed suicide, his mum had terminal cancer and this brought up memories of him finding his father dead when he was just nineteen, they were not getting a party album.

What they did get is sixteen songs delivered in under fifty minutes that showed the excellence of debut Beautiful Freak was no one off.

The record opens with Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor which sets the tone it’s slow and haunting and Going To Your Funeral appears twice Pt 1 is like a funeral march but not in a bad way, birds tweet half way through and Pt 2 is a sweet instrumental.

Cancer for the Cure is industrial at the start all screeching guitars before the drums arrive and the rhythm section set a heavy beat and there is an organ throughout the song that is imaginative and exciting, it’s a song about cancer but is wonderful, Mark’s raw voice working to perfect effect against the music.

The simplicity of 3 Speed, almost demo like, draws you in and don’t be put off by titles like Hospital Food and The Medication is Wearing Off as these have plenty going on and listen to that guitar on Last Stop:This Town.

Climbing To the Moon we see a chink of light for Mark, beautiful melody and the record ends with P.S. You Rock My World with strings and a chugging guitar as he is starting to see that life goes on no matter how harrowing.

What we are dealing with here is Mark dealing with the devastation of loss, the grief of that loss, the unfairness of the loss and a hope to recover and learn from these losses.

It’s no surprise it sold nowhere near what Beautiful Freak sold, doesn’t matter. The records final words are “and maybe it’s time to live,” he certainly deserved to.

 8/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: 3 Speed