Yeah yeah yeah - I know what you're thinking. Another Eels review B Side? Come on! They're playing in Milwaukee tomorrow, and I'm going! And Heidi is even coming along - driving hundreds of miles to go with me! I'm sure we'll both write up our thoughts and post them early next week. It's gonna be epic! I've talked about this before, but when this album was being written, lead singer Mark Oliver Everett (aka E) was in an extremely dark place. His mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and his sister had committed suicide within months of each other. This album is largely his reactions to the news and the events, and becoming the only living member of his family remaining. His father passed when he was a 19 of a heart attack, and E was the first to discover his body. I'm going to cut right to the chase with this one - the album is phenomenal. Every time I listen to it, I pick up more and more of what E must have been feeling and going through when he was writing this. Now, it helps I read his book 'Things The Grandchildren Should Know' before I listened to this the first time, and it was easier to put everything into perspective. But even if you haven't read it, you can listen to his words and his tone - and just know these were times of extreme struggle - but at the same point, hope that the future still held something better for him. Powerful, powerful stuff. 'Dead Of Winter' is essentially the tale of him being in the hospital seeing his mother slowly pass of cancer. 'Climbing To The Moon' plays in his experiences watching his sister be in and out of mental health facilities trying to battle her depression. The two 'Funeral' tracks and the opening track also relate to his sister's struggles. As sad as the album is on the surface, it's so much more than that. And each listen, makes me love it more and more. As close to a perfect album as you can have without having traditional "hits". If I could crusade one thing, it'd be having people read his book and listen to his album. It makes being able to put your own life problems and issues in perspective. Love it.
TRACK LISTING:
1. Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor
2. Going to Your Funeral, Pt. 1
3. Cancer for the Cure
4. My Descent Into Madness
5. 3 Speed
6. Hospital Food
7. Electro-Shock Blues
8. Efils' God
9. Going to Your Funeral, Pt. 2
10. Last Stop: This Town
11. Baby Genius
12. Climbing to the Moon
13. Ant Farm
14. Dead of Winter
15. Medication Is Wearing Off, The
16. P.S. You Rock My World
Listen To Samples
1. The Medication Is Wearing Off
2. Electro Shock Blues
3. Climbing To The Moon
4. My Descent Into Madness
5. 3 Speed
6. Ant Farm
7. Dead Of Winter
8. Last Stop: This Town
9. Elizabeth On The Bathroom Floor
10. PS You Rock My World
(Yeah, it's really that good)
FINAL RATING:
4.75 out of 5 stars
