The Album Review Club - Week #120 - (page 1413) - The Lexicon of Love - ABC

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!
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
The Colour And The Shape is their only truly fully-formed record IMO, and it's magnificent in part because it has a unifying theme -- it's about Dave's break-up with his then-wife from beginning to end. It also mixes styles and sonic dynamics very effectively (compare "Wind Up" to "Walking After You").

Personally, I love the Foos but more for individual songs/sound than for specific records per se.

Anyhow, you can not like their music (I understand and agree it has a more "generic" feel now than it did in the mid-90s -- they've felt a bit out of gas creatively for a while now) but you can't not like Dave (not that you said you don't -- just pointing it out). He's the Tom Petty of "grunge" -- completely and inexorably immersed in rock and roll, same as Petty was.
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Nailed it.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
Found this interesting -- here are the decades we've covered so far (with 1980 counting as the 80s, not the end of the 70s, for the math(s) nerds):

Pre 60s 2
60s 2
70s 10
80s 5
90s 10
00s 4
10s 10
20s 0

The "odd" decades getting a lot of love; we need some more "even" ones to balance this out!
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And you have been doing your best to level the distribution somewhat and I am most interested in your favourite pick from the sixties ( I wonder if some the brigade of tomorrow ( easy clue for you Fog given where you reside ) might come to the fore but another from the 80's wouldn't go astray.
 
GoatersLeftShin said:
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!
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Nice review - it is a good result when the thread throws up something we've missed.

The pedant in me cant help but ask a question based on the following quote:-

"They probably won't like it, but it reminded me a lot of Beck".

Who's "they"?

If it's Beck, you do realise that Beck is a single person (Beck Hansen)? If so, humble apologies. If not , consider yourself educated!! :)

Anyway, I think I've only heard one Eels song (cant even remember what it was - maybe the title track to this album) so based on your comparsion to Beck, I'm looking forward to listening to this. However, my reaction may well depend on whether it's folky/acoustic Beck (yay!) or knob-twiddly/beats Beck (oh no!).
 
RobMCFC said:
Who's "they"?

If it's Beck, you do realise that Beck is a single person (Beck Hansen)? If so, humble apologies. If not , consider yourself educated!! :)

Anyway, I think I've only heard one Eels song (cant even remember what it was - maybe the title track to this album) so based on your comparsion to Beck, I'm looking forward to listening to this. However, my reaction may well depend on whether it's folky/acoustic Beck (yay!) or knob-twiddly/beats Beck (oh no!).
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Haha I'm not sure who "they" are either! I kind of mean people who might like it but haven't heard of Beck. It's certainly not aimed at anyone in the thread! :) It's the way the have a lot of different styles but it still sounds like it all belongs on the same album if you get me?

Yes I'm a big fan of Beck and saw him at the Albert Hall in Manchester a few years ago, he was superb!
 
journolud said:
I used to have a couple of Eels albums and I think this was one of them. Never quite hit the spot for me but are obviously well rated, a bit of a cult band. Time to give them another go then
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Same, one I haven't listened to in a long time, to the point I remember more the mood of it than any actual songs.
 
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