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.