Eels
Eels - Shootenanny
£28.95
180 Gram Vinyl with Download. Head Eel Mark 'E' Everett purges his soul with a smile on 'Shootenanny!', as he delivers bursts of bittersweet wit and light-hearted drama. Unlike solemn 1996 epic 'Electro-Shock Blues' and 2001's thorny 'Souljacker', E's songwriting here puts the emphasis on light melodies and clean pop craft. While his limber genre-jumping often earns comparisons to Beck, there's also some of Wilco's Jeff Tweedy in E's razor-burn voice. And though 'Shootenanny!' isn't out on 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's experimental ledge, it has a similar unruly twang that injects a dose of whimsy into soul-searching songs such as 'Love of the Loveless'. 'Wrong About Bobby', for instance, glides along on sunny, jangling guitars while E tries and fails to forgive a violent grudge. By mixing sweet with sour, E's warm and fuzzy mope rock sounds great whether it's blasting across a garden on a sunny day or playing in the background on a rainy night.
