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Title: Daisies Of The Galaxy
By: eels
Released by: Dreamworks
Released on: 2000
Rating (out of 10): 7
Date: 06/27/2001

Returning From Disillusion

To quote from my Internet hero Vern, E isn't "so much a bad motherfucker as a sad motherfucker." The epitome of the eels' depression was apparent in the "Cancer For The Cure" music video clip playing in the background of American Beauty. Coming off the death of his mother and his sister, the eels' last album, Electro-shock Blues is one of the saddest albums in recent history. However, as the final song on that incredible (yet commercially unsuccessful) album, "P.S. You Rock My World," stated, "I was thinkin' 'bout how everyone is dying/And maybe it's time to live."
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So here we have it. The third release from the eels, which isn't that sad after all. Daisies of the Galaxy is an important shift from the eels' previous style, incorporating everything from band organ ("Grace Kelly Blues") to acoustic folk ("Wooden Nickels"). Admittedly, E is no John Denver, and I don't expect the eels to ever buy the world a Coke and keep it company. Indeed, E is a sad man. Sad by nature. However, much like American Beauty, E incorporates sadness with hope.

Simple pleasures dominate Daisies of the Galaxy in a way that we haven't seen before from the eels. From the whimsical yet lovely "I Like Birds," a song as silly, yet as joyous as the title suggests, to the childlike hope of "Jeannie's Diary," E has turned over a new leaf. The hidden track, "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" even boasts "God damn right, it's a beautiful day" in a way that doesn't seem cynical whatsoever.

Amidst all of this hope, my favorite track is the ever-somber "It's A Motherfucker" (much more than the "clean" version, "It's a Monster Trucker"), a simple piano-and-string arrangement about loneliness that still nearly brings me to tears every time I listen to it.

The microcosm of Daisies of the Galaxy is the last track (minus bonus track). "Selective Memory" is filled with so much emotion, like "It's A Motherfucker," my eyes always get misty. I don't know what it is about the eels, but they continue to make me happy and sad at the same time.

"Selective Memory" accounts long-forgotten days as a child. Days that disillusionment have erased. One of the most honest and beautiful lyrics I have ever heard comes from this track:

When I was a baby we would go out to the park
and sit out in the fountain splashing 'round until it's dark
the days go on forever when you only know that much
and everything you need to know is answered with one touch
I wish I could remember
but my selective memory won't let me


Daisies of the Galaxy is an attempt to return to that childlike state, but not really remembering how. But there is still hope that, amidst all the pain in the world, maybe we should appreciate the daisies.

E is not a changed man, but a changing man. Not only has Daisies of the Galaxy taken a genre shift, but also a tone shift. Indeed, maybe it's time to live.


© Copyright CultureDose.com 06/27/2001

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