Eels

After a couple of song-rich, keyboard-dominated albums released under the Man Called E moniker, Mark Everett morphed into the trio Eels with Beautiful Freak. At its best, the debut gives a trip-hop twist to the California singer/songwriter tradition; at its worst, it suggests one more bummed-out wise guy’s take on Beck’s collage-style rock.

With a sense of humor that skews toward cynicism that’s alleviated occasionally by bouts of sincerity, Everett is not the likeliest subject to make a transcendent album about death. But he nearly pulls it off on Electro-Shock Blues. The music is somber but not sedate, with bursts of saxophone, off-kilter orchestration, and outright noise evoking the turbulence beneath the deadpan vocals. The singer battles not only depression but also his penchant for irony, and his struggle to move beyond them makes for a fascinating if sometimes morbidly downcast listen.

On Daisies of the Galaxy, Eels replace the sprawling sound experiments of the first two albums with a more direct folk-rock approach. "Me, I'm feeling pretty good, as of now," Everett sings, which passes for euphoria in the Eels' world, and the music’s easygoing charm affirms him. Souljacker plunges back into the darkness, this time with fuzz-coated guitars and a rudimentary blues-punk attack. It's a suitable backdrop for Everett’s favorite subjects -- loneliness, alienation, and despair, this time told through the perspective of assorted freaks and misfits such as the "Dog Faced Boy" and the troubled high school student in "Soul Jacker Pt. 1."

The scrappy guitars and just-rolled-out-of-bed vocals return on Shootenanny. Surprisingly warm childhood memories ("Saturday Morning") collide with the "Agony" of adulthood, while irony gives way to more resilient traits, summed up by a lyric that might've been unthinkable a decade earlier: "Somebody loves you, and you're gonna make it through." (GREG KOT)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide