Performer Notes

Personnel: E (vocals, guitar, baritone guitar, piano, Wurlitzer piano, Clavinet, mellotron); John Parish (guitar, melodica, keyboards, stylophone, drums, percussion, programming); Koool G Murder (guitar, clavinet, synthesizer, bass); Joe Gore (guitar); Adam Siegel (bass); Ryan Boesch (programming).
Recorded at Onehitsville USA, Honorsound, and Bristol & The Bomb Factory, Los Angeles, California.
The songwriting of Eels frontman E comes into sharp focus on 2001's SOULJACKER, without an iota of compromise to the band's quirky, noise-touched rock. In fact, SOULJACKER finds the Eels expanding their palette with even more off-kilter arrangements and unusual instrumentation. E's mix of sincerity and weirdness hits home on cuts like "Woman Driving, Man Sleeping" and "Friendly Ghost," resulting in an overall effect that's charming and sometimes moving, especially given the group's surprising combination of sounds and styles.

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (3/28/02, p.70) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...A hard-looking, no-holds-barred look at the moral bankruptcy of society at large....Over squalling guitars, fuzzy surf lines, loping break beats and lush strings, E spins tales of small-town misfits searching for meaning in a media-driven world..."

Entertainment Weekly (3/22/02, p.110) - "...Artfully skewed...the darkness is strangely joyous..." - Rating: B+

Alternative Press (4/02, p.72) - 8 out of 10 - "...Frontman E lightens his subject matter-but not his touch....You get surly rock jams glorifying social outcasts. You get lo-fi beats underlaid with sublime orchestration....SOULJACKER is fresh, funny and unpredictable..."

CMJ (3/11/02, p.4) - "...E shows his fondness for mutating several styles at once...part caustic blues, part cabaret song and a dash of chaos....It'd be fitting as a centerpiece for a David Lynch film just before normalcy gets up-ended and things go down a surreal, strobe-lit path to psychosis..."