Eels - Souljacker CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

look at the moral bankruptcy of society at large. From the blues-based grit and spit of the opening track to the messy distortion throughout, Souljacker launches an all-out attack on familiar Eels themes -- insecurity, loneliness, despair -- but this time from a more universal standpoint. Over squalling guitars, fuzzy surf lines, loping break beats and lush strings, E spins tales of small-town misfits searching for meaning in a media-driven world. The hairy protagonist of "Dog Faced Boy" gets taunted at school and bitterly laments, "Ma won't shave me/Jesus can't save me." Behind a shuffling Bo Diddley beat in "Souljacker 1," E examines the mind of a fed-up, Columbine-like high school student: "Johnny don't like the teacher/Johnny don't like the school/One day Johnny's gonna do something/To show 'em he's nobody's fool -- oh, yeah!" There are some spare, delicate moments -- the lovely, string-drenched "Fresh Feeling," the folky "Woman Driving, Man Sleeping" - but for the most part, the Eels have pulled out all the stops on Souljacker.

MARK KEMP
(RS 892 - March 28, 2002)