Eels – Meet The Eels Essential EELS Vol.1, 1996 - 2006 (2xLP, Yellow Vinyl)

Eels’ Meet The Eels: Essential Eels Vol. 1 1996–2006 was first issued in 2008 as a 24-song overview of the band’s first decade, tracing Mark Oliver Everett’s work from Beautiful Freak through Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. As a compilation, it catches Eels at their most recognisable: the deadpan alt-rock breakthrough of “Novocaine for the Soul,” the off-centre pop of “Susan’s House,” and the later, more worn-in emotional directness that became central to Everett’s writing.

What makes this set useful is its range. It pulls material from six studio albums, includes Jon Brion’s remix of “Climbing to the Moon,” and folds in songs that travelled beyond the core albums, including “I Need Some Sleep” from Shrek 2. That breadth shows how Eels moved from the collage-like strangeness of the mid-90s into records that many listeners and critics regard as deeper, more fully realised albums, especially Electro-Shock Blues, Daisies of the Galaxy and Blinking Lights and Other Revelations.

Now finally on vinyl for the first time, Meet The Eels works less as a substitute for the albums than as a sharp introduction to them. The humour, bruised tenderness and melodic instinct are all here, and so is the sense of Everett as the band’s singular voice: a songwriter who could make misfit pop songs sound both casually funny and surprisingly heavy.

Reviews

• With an introductory best-of for newbies and a(nother) B-sides compilation for fans, Eels suggest reasons why they became a successful cult act – Pitchfork