Eels were my second big, post-911 band obsession. The first was a knee jerk return to Nirvana, but Eels were the one that ultimately got me through. During that time of confusion and feeling, Electro Shock Blues was a very important album for me.

As has been indicated before, the album left quite a mark on me. With its theme of coming out alive on the other end of someone else’s death, Blues very aurally demonstrates that pain doesn’t have to last forever. In paticular, the terminal track, P.S. You Rock My World, floods with optimism and hope. Ben Woolhead described the song well in 2003:

The only genuine moment of respite comes with the final track ‘PS You Rock My World’ and its insistence that however much you lose, you always have something to cling onto. It sounds an incongruous yet defiantly affirmative note at the end of the album’s funereal march, as if E the church organist has suddenly broken into Monty Python’s ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life’. It makes the experience of listening to Electro-Shock Blues akin to being slowly buried alive only to have the lid of the coffin pried open at the very last moment.

Eels - P.S. You Rock My World (buy)

I have this man to thank for introducing me to Butch & E:

Posted by thelumberjackthief |