HEAVY MUSIC HISORY: Daisies Of The Galaxy – Eels
If you think you have never heard an EELS song, think again. Having been one of the first acts signed to DreamWorks Records, co-founded by David Geffin, Mo Ostin, Michael Ostin and Lenny Waronker, their music has featured extensively in film, from Shrek to Scream 2. Chances are, you’ll recognise at least a handful of tracks when scanning through their discography.
Daisies Of The Galaxy (2000) is the third studio album from the group, fronted by singer, lyricist, and multi-instrumentalist Mark Oliver Everett, known professionally under the moniker E. In stark contrast to their previous album, Electro-Shock Blues (1998) , the album opens to literal fanfare with Grace Kelly Blues.
This opening track helps set the tone for the record, immediately denoting to listeners that they’re in for something a little different but still familiar in this third outing for the band. Grace Kelly Blues provides the first example of the fragile optimism and deep longing for meaning that carries throughout its runtime. Everett had not had an easy life, his father, Hugh Everett III, was a groundbreaking physicist in the field of Quantum Mechanics. Characterized in the documentary Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, as being a brilliant but emotionally distant man, at just 19 Everett would be the one to find his father when he died of a heart attack in 1982, marking the first of what would be a string of tragic losses for the musician.
The 1996 loss of his sister Elizabeth to suicide, followed soon after by the 1998 loss of his mother Nancy to lung cancer, are explored in gut-wrenching detail throughout the previous album Electro-Shock Blues, and it’s apparent in several of the tracks that Everitt was still grappling with the emotional aftermath while writing Daisies Of The Galaxy. It’s A Motherfucker and Selective Memory offer a visceral exploration of the impact of grief and loss, both familial and romantic. The melancholy of these tracks pair perfectly with the achingly vulnerable vocals and beautifully gentle arrangements, in combination they make for an emotionally intense listening experience.
On brand for EELS, Daisies Of The Galaxy refuses to confine itself to a single sound. The relatively light and jaunty Packing Blankets and I Like Birds soon give way to Flyswatter, which brings an ominous tone to the record, a dark carnival of sound that considers man’s tendency toward apathy. The album could easily be considered an audio journey through the stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance each seem have their moment through the record. The themes culminate in a final ‘hidden’ track that the 90’s and 00’s kids amongst will likely remember well. Mr E’s Beautiful Blues was featured heavily in the brash 2000 sex-com Road Trip. If listening to the song without paying too much attention, with its repetition of the line “Goddamn right, it’s a beautiful day” it is easy to see how the song could be mistaken for a feel-good summer jam.
This seems to have been the case for the studio executives who allegedly forced Everitt’s hand to allow the use of the song in the movie, going so far as to have the music video for the single feature the cast of the teen flick. On closer inspection though, it becomes overwhelmingly clear that said line is intended as a sarcastic juxtaposition to the barely contained rage around the heavy themes the verses explore. Nevertheless, the single become one of EELS’ most commercially successful releases, peaking at No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart in 2000.
Daisies Of The Galaxy reached a peak of No. 8 in the UK album charts when released on February 28th 2000, placing it comfortably in the middle of their debut Beautiful Freak (1996) which peaked at No.5 and Electro-Shock Blues which made it as far as No. 12. Critically, it received a mixed but generally positive reception. Reviewers of the time who expected another album of directly confessional and raw songs akin to the bands previous two releases may have felt somewhat disappointed by the more eclectic tone of their third album, which bounces between the heartbreaking, the optimistic, the enraged and the contemplative with notes of jazz, rock and electro-pop, but the varied landscape of the album makes for compelling and, at times compulsive, listening.
In the years since, EELS have continued to release a steady stream of albums, their most recent being Eels Time! released in June 2024. Everitt has also penned an autobiography. Released in 2007 Things the Grandchildren Should Know is a journey through Everett’s life which utilizes the same trademark humour and introspection so often present in his lyrics. Euphonious and experimental, Daisies Of The Galaxy remains as haunting and as hopeful today as it was on release 25 years ago.
Daisies Of The Galaxy was originally released on Feburary 28 2000 via DreamWorks Records.
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