Meet the Eels: Essential Eels Volume 1 (1996-2006)

Review

(Geffen)
Release Date: 01/15/2008 12:00

Reviewed by RJ Smith

Failure is an option. The Eels popped out of the breach opened by Beck’s "Loser," and their main mood—quirky, smirky gloom—has never faltered. Across their 10-year commemorative best-of, the music is intimate, full of acoustic guitars and Hollywood soundtrack inflections. Lyrically, leader E (real name Mark Everett) is ironic, deadpan, miserable—think Randy Newman on Zoloft. If he didn’t have himself around, E might have nothing to sing about. Any three songs make him sound like the smartest guy in the room; a whole CD starts to feel like a bad coffeehouse monologue. Useless Trinkets adds two CDs of rarities and a DVD. Spoiler alert: Live audiences do nothing to jostle E's troubles.

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