Track Listing

1. Novocaine for the Soul
2. Susan's House
3. Rags to Rags
4. Beautiful Freak
5. Not Ready Yet
6. My Beloved Monster
7. Flower
8. Guest List
9. Mental
10. Spunky
11. Your Lucky Day in Hell
12. Manchild

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15309 in Music
• Brand: DreamWorks
• Released on: 1996-08-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .2 pounds

Customer Reviews

Today could be your lucky day...
Awesome experimental debut for Butch, Tommy, and "E". I bought this album recently after seeing the Abandoned Pools in concert (Tommy is the lead singer) but hadn't heard anything off of it besides "Novacaine" on the radio and "My Beloved Monster" from Shrek. Boy was I missing out.

I'm more of an 'experimental' Eels fan; albums like Beautiful Freak and Electro-shock are better in my opinion just because of the extreme diversity between songs. From the quasi-piano balled of the title track to the pure rock and roll number "Mental", E and the crew keep you guessing.

Lyrically, the sardonic humor really shines here; especially on "Susan's House" which really paints a nice story (albeit it jumps from one place to another in a town). E is a better ironic-writer than beck and a lot more self-deprecating and expressive ("Everyday they rain down on me, flower in a hailstorm")

If you're in 'one of those moods' or just looking for something interesting from a very talented group of musicians, look no further than The Eels.

Excellent debut from Eels
I'll admit it. I was reeled in by the single 'Novocaine For The Soul.' It's a song you'll be humming to yourself over and over. Fortunately, the rest of the album is also quite good. There are some songs you could give a miss, but then there are works of genius such as 'Susan's House,' a spoken-word tune that would make you laugh if it wasn't so sad. 'Flower' is affecting in it's gentleness, and 'Spunky' is just sublime. With lines like 'Spunky looks good in her bright red wig, eating chocolate chip mint ice-cream/A cat named Lola with a violent past, is balled-up asleep 'cross her knees" it's that kind of song which makes you take a time out from everyday life and take a deep, life-affirming breath. Even though this album is stacked with sad songs, there's an uplifting quality about them. It took me a while to get into the album, so you might need to play it a few times.

memorably beautiful
Beautiful freak is a haunting cd. The eels have a truly original sound. This is a cd for a person who is tired of all of the same old music and is looking for something more original.