hen the Eels signed to Dreamworks and scored a left field alternative rock hit with "Novocaine For the Soul," they defined their career in one swift move. They didn’t know it at the time, but an Eels single would never again attain the massive popularity of the debut. When alternative rock faded as the music industry’s cash-cow, so did the Eels.


The band was thus forced to take a step back, and most "indie" fans didn’t really care that they had once been an MTV pop group. Despite this, the Eels struggled to gain any leverage in the community. They became part of a cluster of bands that was only quietly respected among music critics and Pitchfork-type fans such as yourself. Even as they released Electro-Shock Blues and Daisies of the Galaxies, two phenomenal records that showed them moving light years ahead of the straight ahead alt-rock that had turned listeners off of Beautiful Freak, the Eels were consistently shrugged off as insignificant, boring, and standard. People liked them, sure, but, you know, they were part of that whole "grunge" thing, weren’t they?


And so, the Eels joined the ranks of Modest Mouse and Death Cab For Cutie, peripheral groups that served as a reminder of the stuff we used to listen to, bands that have somehow lost either their relevance, their innovation, or in the worst cases, their novelty. Up until now, the Eels have been falsely accused of these crimes. Then they put out Souljacker, and it has all become true.


A few years ago, when MP3's were becoming big, Neil Young said that music had become sonically unpleasing to the ear. Somewhere between heavy metal and electronica, the aural aesthetic that had once been so important to music in rock & roll’s heyday had disappeared. That’s why MP3's were becoming so widely accepted- because sound quality was no longer a priority. My first complaint about Souljacker comes from this very idea: it doesn’t sound good. It’s not pleasant to the ear. It’s painfully annoying, in fact, and that’s not just because it’s louder than its predecessors, or because the chords E uses are weirder, or because high pitched instruments that sound like they were generated by bleeing mules are abundant, and thus, cringe worthy. Keep in mind, I like the new Trail of Dead album just fine, and that’s louder than anything on Souljacker. It’s not the volume that’s offensive. The composition here just sounds amateur, that’s all, as if it was written without any consideration for the listener. The stellar songwriting is thus only allowed to shine on the softer tracks ("Woman Driving, Man Sleeping," "Souljacker pt. 2."), all of which luckily escaped the awful production that plagues the loud ones.


If the great lyrics that have become such a big part of the Eels’ appeal had remained, I’d be quite happy with Souljacker. Unfortunately, even that is mostly gone. What I love about the Eels’ previous records is that the struggle described in the lyrics was an extraordinarily universal one, but E managed to paint it slowly, uniquely, and subtly. The resulting image was that of a fragile, ambitious man, and you don’t even have to be that emo to understand him. On Souljacker, subtlety is completely thrown away in favor of obnoxious slogans like "Johnny don’t like the teacher! Johnny don’t like the school! One day Johnny is gonna do something to show them he’s nobody’s fool!" It’s about, like, school violence.


The lyrics go from one extreme to the other- from deliberately crazed and creepy violence to emotional, self-loathing confession. On both ends, the words seemed contrived and obvious, making the Eels’ message sound more like Jimmy Eat World’s than Nirvana’s. It’s too bad, really, but there’s enough redeeming songs on Souljacker to warrant the 6.0 I’ve given it. "Friendly Ghost," for instance, is superb- a perfect Eels song that instills melancholy and hope like the very best songs on Electro-Shock Blues.


I can understand why E is trying new things. If you include his first two solo records, he has now made five similar albums, all dealing with alienation, love, and quiet desperation. That doesn’t make them any less beautiful, though, which is why it’s hard to let go. It seems that on Souljacker, where E is visibly trying to apply his gift of universal empathy to a weirder, harder background, the beauty is lost.


I give this record a 6.0 with the hope that E will soon hone his abilities to a point where he’s good enough to experiment successfully. I have faith in the Eels, and with that, here’s to the follow up.