The man called E sprouts a big beard

Souljacker\nEels\nDreamworks Records\nYou've really got to pull for Mark Oliver Everett, or "E," as he's more commonly known in the music world. The singer-songwriter and driving force behind the Eels spent his salad days pumping gas after his father's early death sent him out of school and into drugs. He eventually got it together and released two quirky solo albums in the early 1990s that sold poorly enough to get him dropped from Polydor. He succeeded in resurrecting his musical ambitions in the form of the Eels, whose debut album Beautiful Freak produced the sleeper college radio hit "Novacaine for the Soul" in 1996. But fate had more cruel tricks to play -- in the wake of the Eels' success, his sister committed suicide and his mother died of cancer. The follow-up, 1998's Electro-Shock Blues, was an understandably subdued affair that was filled with sorrow but refused to wallow. "Maybe it's time to live," he mused at the end of that record.\nAnd live he has, but E hasn't lost his morbid sense of humor. Just look at his fourth album, Souljacker, which is named after a serial killer and whose cover shows the singer growing a huge beard and donning dark sunglasses and a hooded sweatshirt. Witness the birth of Unabomber-chic. Lyrically, his preoccupation with outcasts is still present, even to the point of repetition. "Dog Faced Boy" observes that "Life ain't pretty for a dog-faced boy," while "Teenage Witch" similarly notes that "Nothing can help a teenage witch."\nEven if the lyrics are in a holding pattern, the music has received a welcome shot in the arm thanks to E's new collaborator -- John Parish, a British producer/songwriter/\ninstrumentalist best known for his mid- '90s work with P.J. Harvey. The two apparently met at a taping of BBC's "Top of the Pops," and struck up an unlikely friendship that has introduced the Eels sound to the joy of fuzz -- guitar, that is. "Dog Faced Boy" and the title track both rock much harder than they might have on previous Eels albums thanks to Parish's handy work with a guitar.\nLike all Eels albums, Souljacker is cleverly written, hook-y as heck, and generally really good -- but for the most part, it falls just short of being great. It's easy to admire these songs, but a lot harder to love them. An artist has to have a certain undefinable special something to cross that line, and after four albums, I'm not convinced E will ever have it. \n

\n\n