I was working tonight so put this on the headphones whilst I cracked on with it.
I remember "Novacaine for the soul" and have it on CD single, it's absolutely brilliant. However, for some reason I don't remember the album or any other songs by them. They seemed to be one-hit wonders although I'm sure they released more stuff.
So, the album started with the song I know really well and love. I wasn't looking forward to the rest of it really as surely they'd served the best first! However, what a great album this is. Every song is absolutely The Eels but every song is different too. They probably won't like it, but it reminded me a lot of Beck - Beck can do hip-hop, folk, rock and make it all song absolutely normal that you should rap next to a folk song. Beautiful Freak is an album where you have plenty of different styles and sounds. Some of the songs also had a touch of Elbow about them too.
I really enjoyed listening to this, it just passed me by in the 90s - simply because there was so much going on. However, what a great album this is. It's varied and has plenty of pop sensibility - catchy, quirky and just .... cool! What a great pick and another example of this thread throwing up some great albums that I'd missed.
It's an 8/10 from me!