Beautiful Freak

#263 Heard Before? I heard the first four or five Eels albums as they came out. Notes: - everything good he ever did is right there on the first track. even later songs that i truly love ("Cancer for the Cure", "I Like Birds") are just retreads. - "Manchild" almost works as a maudlin closer. almost. - i do appreciate the pop formalism of the songwriting, but without interesting sounds or anything to say, that only goes so far. Verdict: B-side Beck. Listen Again? No.

Do not own it. I'm not sure if I've ever listened to this album front to back, although I'm familiar with "Novocai..." and "Rags to Rags" (the latter of which I had on a Sampler CD from the very first issue of Maxim magazine called Chill Out with the Class of 1997 - an incredible collection and the best thing to ever come out of that magazine). There is so much to be said about the production and songwriting here. Mark Everett is such a smart lyricist - you get the sense that there is more to gleaned from each listen. I love the 80s-electric-piano-sitcom-theme-song riffs in "Susan's House." "Rags to Rags" has such a great chorus payoff with a nod to the Pixies or Nirvana in the quiet-loud-quiet setup. I love the vulnerability in "Not Ready Yet" - this songwriting is so incredibly gen-x. The critics that called it pretentious or out-of-touch were clearly out-of-touch themselves with the most introspective, self-deprecating, and sarcastic generation. That said, the second half of the album is a bit forgettable musically, and feels very of-it's-time 30 years later, although much more sophisticated than the other jangle-pop of the 90s. I personally love the work that Jon Brion and E.Z. Mike (of the Dust Brothers) did with the production - sparse at times, quirky, balanced, just right for E's rough-around-the-edges vocals. Really good with a handful of great tracks. 4 stars.

Novocaine for the Soul was such a hit in the alternative rock sphere back in the day. A couple of familiar songs, although I am not sure I fully listened to the entire album....and now I have, and it is a great album. I would absolutely pick this up if I came across it. It has a lot of great tracks and the majority stood out for me. Mental was probably my stand out track. Solid 4 stars.

This cover art is frickin' terrifying but the music is unexpectedly great? There is so much 90s music I missed since that was the peak of my zealous Christian music only days, ha. it's dark and sad and unexpectedly complex sometimes. rounding up from a 3.5

Not bad!

Dull 90s pop 1.5

My initial thoughts, were a strong first half, falls off as the album goes on. But after a couple more listens I put that down to front loading the singles that the were so familiar and there's plenty to enjoy throughout

Nihilism just hit different in the 90’s, we don’t have that sauce anymore. Not every song is a hit but they were really pushing something here

yes, yes, yes, the shrek song, but this album absolutely slaps as a cohesive piece of art. I'm biased because i've been a casual Eels fan since high school (though Hombre Lobo is my favourite full album) but it's such a fun time listening to these songs.

I enjoyed this!

Poppy grunge, whats to like?

Good album. Enjoyable listen but didn’t entirely rock my world

So I listened to this on Friday. On Monday, when I was going to write about it ... I couldn't remember anything about it. Listen again ... It's okay, even tried a different album - newer - I don't think I need to come back to it.

Pretty middling album. Some strong music but I found most to be pretty uninspired. Not Ready Yet was my fav song of the album. Mental and Guest List were my other highlights

449/1089 what the HELL is THAT okay this was a nice indie ish album faves: not ready yet, your lucky day in hell, susan’s house, manchild 67/100

Good alt rock album. Singer reminds me of Mac Miller if he became a lead singer of a grunge band instead of a rapper. Good variety within the tracklist as well

Not that bad, but still a very low energy record. It sits in a longing, rejecting, depressed mood from start to finish. The songs fit one another and the style stays consistent, which gives the album a clear identity even if that identity is mostly grey and withdrawn. The production is well handled. Everything sounds clean and carefully placed, with enough space for the quiet, slightly off-kilter arrangements to breathe. Nothing feels messy or accidental. The problem is that the whole thing stays in the same emotional lane for too long. What might have felt deep and relatable in teenage years now just feels flat and distant. There is a certain charm in how committed it is to its own sadness, and the songwriting has a quiet stubbornness that keeps it from collapsing completely. Still, it never really lifts or shifts. It just stays there. Beautiful Freak is an ok album. Well made, coherent, and easy to respect, but hard to love once you’ve moved past the age when this kind of mood feels like the whole world.

I wasn’t sure what to think, especially after the first exposure to the album was the nightmare fuel of the cover, the little girl with the photoshopped giant eyes. But this is that mid-90s indie rock that wouldn’t be out of place on a soundtrack for a movie involving young adults. There’s a little bit of anger and pain that you might not expect, but it goes down smooth.

Meh

A strong 3.5. Mid-90s alt radio rock of the highest quality. A really smart and quirky record.

This album holds up pretty well 30 years later

Couldn't really form an opinion on this but theres something about it I do not like.

Ça me remémore la fin des années 90s.

Timbre de voix super Jeff Tweedy (et la musique très Wilco aussi par moment). Ça amené effectivement une touche nostalgique 90s. Je ne connaissais pas et j'espère y revenir. Il y a des bouts un peu plus jazzy avec des séquences harmoniques assez out of the box et des belles instrumentations dont une petite chorale sur Flower, une contrebasse sur Susan's house et du banjo et de la mandoline à d'autres endroits. Par contre le cover art est pas mal laid et on peut laisser l'esthétique "big eye" dans le passé, ici je ne suis pas nostalgique.

Adoré. Excellent indie rock.

Typical grunge/alternative 90s rock sound. This one doesn't really have much substance as I would like and the songwriting is kind of drab. Music isn't anything to write home about. Won't be coming back to revisit this one.

A downer record, but probably better if stoned while listening. Couple of really good songs-Novacaine, Mental, Your Luck Day. lots of alt rock influences like Flaming Lips. Pretty good, solid 3/5.

It was fine, nothing too special. It reminded me of the 90s stuff my parents listen to, but some of the better things from that era.

I used to love this album and all things Eels - but now 15-20 years later it just doesn't captivate me like it used to. Susan's House and My Beloved Monster are a couple of my still favorites though.

Opening number “Novocaine for the Soul” tinky piano amused me with the indie rock sound. “Susan’s House” chorus sounds a bit like a kids song and then there is the dark, twisted narrative. Not an uplifting album lyrically, but has an upbeat sound on most songs. I like their weirdness.

This is going into my rotation

Kinda angsty. I liked Susan's House and Guest List.

At times this feels like the sound of the 90s distilled into an album, and whilst it never really manages to maintain that level of consistency throughout, it was a far more enjoyable listen than the album cover might lead you to believe.

Banal concepts approached with no poetry or originality. 90s edgy teen slop but written by a grown man.

Ok

I like Eels. It’s a solid album

it was all right, not a big fan of the lyrics but the sonics were good

01) Novocaine for the Soul - 10,0 02) Susan's House - 8,5 03) Rags to Rags - 8,0 04) Beautiful Freak - 8,0 05) Not Ready Yet - 7,5 06) My Beloved Monster - 7,5 07) Flower - 7,0 08) Guest List - 8,0 09) Mental - 7,5 10) Spunky - 8,0 11) Your Lucky Day in Hell - 8,0 12) Manchild - 8,0 TOTAL: 8,00 (80/100) Current ranking: 284/1047

I went through an Eels phase about 20 years ago. What sets this album apart is it’s orchestration. Inventive quirky and fun.

This is one of those albums that I always forget exists, but then it comes along and I listen to it and think, “I should get into Eels.” But I never do. Still, it’s always a pleasure to listen to this one. E’s vocals are pretty unremarkable, so the real magic is in the sampling and instrumentation. Each song feels fresh and different than the last, touching on several different styles. It’s hard for me to pick standout songs as I love them all, but Susan’s House and Beautiful Freak stand out to me. Of course, Novocaine For The Soul is a classic.

I always liked My Beloved Monster from Shrek and never knew who the band even was. Overall, not a bad album.

It's good to the point of listening to the rest of their music and reading is quick bio, it's got me interested which is pretty good

What an awful cover. What a boring album. Why could this possibly be relevant. What are we doing here. There's a real chance this just got me on the wrong day but if so, man it was the wrong day.

This had some moments of instrumentation that were alright, but never enough. The vocals don't do anything for me. I won't think of this.

This is one of those that was quite the ride. When it first started maybe I wasn't ready for it or in the mood for it or whatever, but I was kinda hating it. Then it went on and I kept listening and it started winning me over. I have to go back and listen more but I wouldn't be surprised if this was one of those I wind up liking more and more. 3.5 stars as of now.

Lyrically just not my bag at all, loser coded

Essential 90s indie rock. I love Eels so much. Novocaine for the Soul, Flower, and My Beloved Monster were my top 3 but the tag was also pretty dang good.

Pretty underwhelming. Very late 90s generic. Didn't hate it but didn't love it either.

Mediocre, but cool to see a song used in shrek out in the wild

Fine.

Just a lil weird

So odd

90s...ok

OK. 3/5

I haven’t heard this one in over 20 years. I really liked it when it came out because the music was different from what was out at the time and I was suckered in by a rock album with soul samples. Giving it a relisten, the music is still excellent. Lyrically, it’s a little pretentious. Overall, it still holds up to me. 4 stars Also, ‘The Look You Give That Guy’ by the same band is such a pretty song. Needed to shout that one out.

Alternative rock, post-grunge.

Not what I expected from the name and cover. Pretty solid songwriting, 7/10

One of those how did this end up on a major label curios of the mid 1990s...I guess he was a bigger deal in the UK?

I think this album thinks its cooler than I think it is... 2.5/5

This wasn’t for me. Too depressing

Some good, some bad, and minus one star for making me look at the cover art for 45 mins

Quite sad sounding but really catchy as well. Like the odd bits of production.

Music about being a misfit that sounds good.

ok

Wow. Well color me excited to hear something new! That cover is… freaky- so I guess it works, cause I would reach out and put it back based on that alone. But it is titled “Beautiful Freak.” This is a band that was always on the periphery of what I listened to back then. Glad I heard this. My first thoughts: if Gen X were represented by a single album, this would be a good contender. 4 Boolean: True

Initially I was liking it but all the songs became same same.

Not bad at all. Some catchy tunes, one in the Shrek soundtrack. Lots of fuzz, mostly mid to slower tempo, some creative tracks. Songwriting was certainly fine. I don’t see this as an essential album but I’m not upset I spent time listening to it.

Starts with a couple of great tracks but overall I lost interest along the way

Eely depressing

I quite like this album. Not really similar to anything else I’ve listened to at all. His careless raspy voice fits very well

I know Novacane for the Soul. I remember hearing it played on the radio all the time when this album was released. There was something that kept me from buying this record and I couldn’t figure it out. I bought a lot back then. After listening today I realized that I’m glad I didn’t. The lyrics aren’t good. The music seems to be adding a bit of hip hop influence into some of the songs but it just didn’t work for me. There are other styles.

Deffo a good one.

Electro-Shock Blues is a top 20 album for me. This is still great but (unsurprisingly) doesn't have that record's emotional heft. Good to catch up again in any case.

No skips, absolutely beautiful album. This takes me back to my MP3 player days where I had a shitty MP3 player and I had Eels downloaded. I was traveling through China and listening to this a lot. Wonderful stuff.

You know when an album has a title like "Beautiful Freak" it's gonna be about an inch deep. This Beck knockoff has that typical empty 90s production that pushes the snare up to the front of the mix and tosses in some samples 'cause why not, it's hip and all of the cool kids are doing it. Lead Eel "E" (just "E"? C'mon, when is this pretentious nonsense going to stop) has a theatrical, affected voice that can't make up to the fact that he has nothing of value to say.

This was enjoyable. One of the songs from shrek was on here and was a pleasant surprise.

So, this is what the cool kids were listening to in 1996? I want chill them and I’m sure not now.

Starts off pretty promising but quickly just devolves to every single 90s alt rock cliche you've heard, plus with the added chamber pop elements they just sound like an inferior copy of the Smashing Pumpkins. The only thing that I can say that kind of makes them unique are the admittedly pretty interesting lyrics, especially on tracks like "Susan's House" and "My Beloved Monster", but other than that I can't really recommend this album to anyone else.

i'm really torn between a 2 and a 3 on this, like i think it's exactly a 2.5. pretty much background noise, but it at least felt more interesting than the queens of the stone age album. some of the lyrics felt cringy, and i'm probably not listening to anything on here again, but it wasn't like the worst thing which is why i'm torn.

I know they’re supposed to be ironic, but some of these lyrics. Oof

Reminds me a lot of music I love but doesn't quite make it there for some reason. I think the vibes are immaculate but the lyrics are lacking. I'm not against it though and I probably would listen again, there's just something more I'm craving that would push it to a 5. However, he does a great job taking music that SHOULD be annoying and somehow not being insufferable. Nice.

If I wanted to listen to sucky 90s music I’d listen to Moby

This reminded me of the whole crappy radio rock sound of the late 90's early 2000's. Hipster sounding garbage that tries to be eclectic and comes off like quirky ironic elevator music. Dumb lyrics sung by a cringe whiny vocalist that made me feel nothing besides wishing it was over.

One decent song here

dit was iets dat er toch wat uitsprong toen het uitkwam... hetzelfde maar net iets anders dan de rest... en het meeste heeft de tand des tijds overleefd

Goodness me, I’m getting on a bit! I’ve just realised that the Eels’ debut album is 30 years old! I can still clearly remember buying the CD all those years ago. It feels like it was only yesterday. The nineties were a difficult time for me musically. Pop had been saccharine since the mid-1980s, while traditional rock genres were either overproduced or trying too hard to sound modern. Grunge didn’t really do it for me, and neither did rap. The Eels hit me like a bomb in this void. Their artfully crafted pop music combined singer-songwriter lyrics with influences from rock and electronic music. Mark Oliver Everett's lyrics, clearly drawn from personal experience, covered themes such as death, loneliness, unrequited love, depression, mental health issues, freaks, losers and loners. That was new and unprecedented. It was music for people who had somehow lost their way while growing up. Music for real people with real problems. Naturally, it spoke to me because it combined the honesty of my favourite singer-songwriters with a modern sound. 'Beautiful Freak' was an excellent debut: visionary, and setting a new standard for intellectual pop and rock music. It still feels excitingly fresh and different. The album was unbeatable. In my view, Mark Oliver Everett never produced another album quite as compelling, both lyrically and musically. But he doesn't need to. This one is for the ages.

#11 The curator of this list really likes rock, huh? Peculiar album. I don't understand what it's trying to be or what kind of emotion it's trying to convey. It was just a chill listening experience in the end.

Rich, eclectic, interesting textures.

I have never connected with this album and this band. I find it a bit boring and bland. Kind of like a boring Beck….

Simply brilliant. Easy five stars. Have loved this for a long time.

3.5

The background music for every middle-of-the-road 90s teen drama. Songs for the angsty kids to rebel with when they're too scared of metal. The soundtrack of a teenager on a long distance bus, putting their hoodie up over their hair and wistfully looking out the window as they run away from home. Bland not-really rock that doesn't go anywhere as you keep listening and realise they only have one sound. Safe to say i didn't like it.

Eels are one of those bands where I've just had the one song that I've really liked for a long time (Novocaine For The Soul), but I never got round to really listening to anything else. I just sort of expected that to be their best song, and was prepared for most of this album to pale in comparison to that opening track... I was so wrong, every song on this is distilled mid 90s indie rock gold

love novocaine the rest is aight..

🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 Okay, whatever, Eels. I remember hearing “Novocaine for the Soul” and “Beautiful Freak” around the same time—in high school—and loving them because I was just old enough to be emo and just young enough to lack discernment. I still stand by these songs, especially the first—I even wrote a short story that sucked called “Before I Sputter Out” ripped from its lyrics—but on almost every listen since my first, I’ve been really on the fence about a lot of aspects. I think I remember hearing that the frontman was, like, REALLY going through it, so I’m not leveling poser allegations against him, but there’s a certain put-on-ness about many aspects of “Novocaine for the Soul,” and, by proxy, the entire album, that I suspect is a transitional form between nineties grunge-y soft rock and the lab-grown whine of emo pop punk. His voice has always ridden the line for me—it just barely works, but I think it sounds purposefully strained in a way that makes me feel resistant to taking it seriously. There are a lot of musical cues here too that I’ve learned to raise an eyebrow at. I wouldn’t have known it in high school, but the drum-loop-over-grainy-strings-samples in so many of these songs read to me as sort of a disingenuous attempt at signposting something is indie these days, though I wonder if Eels started this trend. There’s a hint of “twisted nursery rhyme” cadence in several of these songs, once again chiefly “Novocaine,” and it’s something I think I was way more into in High School before I realized it’s kind of baby’s first subversion and almost always ends up corny. It’s a bummer, but I even feel that way about the entire “Beautiful Freak” motif in the album—a tough defeat, since it’s a concept I resonate really deeply with but that seems to be so easily commodified and clichéd. Even on this album, “Beautiful Freak” makes its unsubtle but sweet statement, and then is soon followed by “Beloved Monster”—huh?! Did we just look in the thesaurus? The titles really do reek of this sadboy wordbank: “Novocaine for the Soul,” “Rags to Rags,” “Beautiful Freak,” “My Beloved Monster,” “Mental,” “Your Lucky Day in Hell,” and “Manchild” all feel like cookie-cutter poetry from the antisocial, reject, outcast stereotype of the last few decades. I can only hope, once again, that Eels predates this and these were genuine statements before they became tragically flat. Then again, flat or not, there was a time in my life when this vocabulary felt heartfelt and honest, and maybe that’s the sort of mindset I need to return to when listening to Eels. All this harshness aside, I found myself liking the album in general through this critical haze. I think “Beloved Monster” (even if redundant), “Mental,” and “ 1: Bad | 2: Below Okay, No Desire to Revisit | 3: Good, Conditionally (OR Inconsistent Mix of Qualities) | 4: Great (OR Technically amazing but missing the sauce emotionally) | 5: Amazing

3.5 - good

전체적인 몽환적인 듯한 분위기가 좋았고, 앨범 커버를 보고 좀 당황했지만 안에 있던 노래는 다 좋았던 것 같다. 뭔가 음악을 잘 모르는 내가 느끼기에는 오아시스 느낌도 났다. I liked the overall dreamlike atmosphere; although the album cover took me by surprise a bit, I thought all the songs inside were great. To someone like me who doesn't know much about music, it even gave off a bit of an Oasis vibe.

Užas, toliko loših tih rock ili kako uopće nazvati to, bendova, jedva čekam završiti ovaj projekt. 1/5, 1/10

Beautifully Freaky.

I knew one Eels song before hearing this debut album. Had no idea about the 30-year catalog of albums. How many good bands are lurking below mainstream popularity, creating solid albums year after year? This feels like one to come back to, sit with the ruminating lyrics, enjoy the studio noodling.