Brand: Geffen

Format: best_of

PartNumber: 1746014

Release Date: 22-01-2008

Details: Amazon.ca From son of an internationally renowned physicist, to oddball post-grunge one-hit-wonder, to ongoing alt-rock sideshow curiosity you just can’t shut up, to engaging diarist of life at its most interesting, imagined or indeed tormented--Mark Oliver Everett a.k.a. ‘E’ a.k.a. Eels (he is effectively, for all their shape-shifting, the band incarnate) can lay reasonable claim to being one of the most notable American songwriters alive today. And given the already vast, sprawling nature of his 10-year back catalogue it will come as no surprise to discover that a few choice cuts fell between the cracks en-route. And thus, this double collection of Eels rarities, b-sides, session tracks and song re-jigs is about as delightful, if random, as any straight album he’s released. He’s always had too many sides to be a square, but even so it’s surprising to see single songs’ split personalities laid bare and equally dominant here. “Novocaine for the Soul” appears in two pleasingly alternate guises, as spoken word sub-grunge music-box and then playful, vocoder heavy robotic-minimalism, the Shrek-soundtracking “My Beloved Monster” is reinvented three times over, and “Susan’s House” is reborn as suspenseful noir-hip hop in “Susan’s Apartment”. And tracks like hoarse, upbeat "Rotten World Blues", lullaby-simple "Taking a Bath in Rust" and twinkling lament “Living Life” are chart-toppers in any other reality. Trinkets are by definition a little useless, they serve no real purpose, yet with the aid of time the opposite often becomes true. Useless Trinkets, like Eels’ career, is much like that. Hold it close. --James Berry

UPC: 602517460140

EAN: 0602517460140

Model: 1746014

Binding: audioCD

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood