I have had this now for a couple of weeks and as usual with Eels stuff its a grower. This album is another collection of witty, inventive melancholy rock tracks, probably his most consistent since Beautiful Freak. I like it a lot. Here is what amazon says :- [QUOTE]Head Eel Mark "E" Everett purges his soul with a smile on Shootenanny!, as he delivers bursts of bittersweet wit and light-hearted drama. Unlike solemn 1996 epic Electro-Shock Blues and 2001's thorny Souljacker, E's songwriting here puts the emphasis on light melodies and clean pop craft. While his limber genre-jumping often earns comparisons to Beck, there's also some of Wilco's Jeff Tweedy in E's razor-burn voice. And though Shootenanny! isn't out on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's experimental ledge, it has a similar unruly twang that injects a dose of whimsy into soul-searching songs such as "Love of the Loveless". "Wrong About Bobby", for instance, glides along on sunny, jangling guitars while E tries and fails to forgive a violent grudge. By mixing sweet with sour, E's warm and fuzzy mope rock sounds great whether it's blasting across a garden on a sunny day or playing in the background on a rainy night[/QUOTE] If you havent got any Eels in your collection yet, you could do a lot worse than this one. More rock loving types should also try Souljacker. Cheers, Robbo
