ALBUM REVIEWS

Eels
Souljacker
Polydor
@www.vanguard-online.co.uk

 It's almost impossible to imagine anyone sounding more traumatised and generally put-upon than E, and that makes it difficult not to speculate that the poor sod's had a generally terrible life (particularly the tricky adolescence period). And yet he looks so pleasant, even when being interviewed on the bed by that half-wit on the Big Breakfast last month. In fact waking up, and realising that I was watching Eels on the Big Breakfast gave me bit of an insight into the levels of trauma E might have experienced. Weirder still, John Parish (friend and mentor of PJ Harvey, who also plays and produces on Souljacker – is this why he couldn't remember Polly's songs properly at Reading?), gamely answered those questions that E and Butch wouldn't know, not being English?!?

Anyway, onto the record. It's supremely fabulous, everything you've come to expect from Eels and more. If you've heard the first single from the album, the mighty 'Souljacker part 1', all dirty thumping bass and squalling guitars, there's a few more like that, 'Dog Faced Boy', and the positively punky 'What is This Note?'. Then there's the quietly disturbing ones: 'That's Not Really Funny', 'Woman Driving, Man Sleeping'. All hoarse vocals and barely concealed emotion Finish it off with the sweetly melancholic 'Fresh Feeling', all honeyed strings and um-chukka drums; the devastatingly bleak, yet funky 'Bus Stop Boxer' and, voila, you have the latest Eels album.

Kate Dorney