Eels: Daisies Of The Galaxies

Electro-Shock Blues, Eels' 1998 album, is a stunning song cycle about death, grief, and transcendence. It also raised the question of how the band could ever match such a conceptually pure record. Daisies Of The Galaxies, which faces that unenviable task, gets off to a lovely and low-key start with the gentle "Grace Kelly Blues," a song that recalls Electro-Shock at its most delicate. Sadly, it's quickly apparent that Daisies is altogether too delicate: It's so wispy and twee that it all but vanishes into the ether. Of course, it doesn't help that the already brief album is weighted down with filler like the sleepy instrumental "Estate Sale" and the cutesy "I Like Birds." Nor is it encouraging that the album's first single, "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues," essentially re-writes Electro-Shock's should-have-been-hit "Last Stop: This Town" to lesser effect. Daisies isn't bad—"Jeannie's Diary" is a gorgeous, lilting ballad, while much of the remainder floats by pleasantly—but it's forgettable and inconsequential. Coming on the heels of such a powerful and memorable record, it's a disappointment.