Search - Eels :: Daisies of the Galaxy (Clean)

A Re-Review...

Fred Beukema | 04/25/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I now own the "edited" copy of this album, and am in a better position to write about the so-called "censorship" issue. The Monstertrucker song I refer to in my previous review is, in fact, the only edited track on the CD, with unedited uses of the s-word sprinkled throughout the rest of the disk. So not much was done to it, apart from cleaning it up for post-10PM radio.As for the music itself, I raise my review by a star. There's a nice diversity of sound, including a number of electronically spiked tunes ala "Cancer for the Cure" or "Last Stop This Town" from Electroshock Blues (including "Flyswatter", and my personal favorite on the disc, "Sound of Fear"), and some more introspective acoustic stuff ("Something Is Sacred"). There's some nice grooves here too, such as the snappy 3/4-time "Daisy Through Concrete."I do have some criticisms. A few of the songs do sound remarkably similar, notably the first two tracks. I found myself getting the chorus of "Packing Blankets" stuck in my head all too easily. And "Tiger in my Tank" sounds a bit too much like Jimmy Buffet for it's own good.Ultimately, it's a solid album and worth the buy, especially if you're a fan of the band's past work. The edited content is almost worth the price itself, with a clever job done by E and company of integrating the edit into the music (see my previous review)."

Edited? Yes, but...

Fred Beukema | 04/06/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"First, I give the album 3 stars simply because I've not heard all of it, but I like what I've heard.Beautiful Freak is one of my favorite albums, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found daisies of the galaxy among the titles in the new CD rack at my college radio station (KDIC, Grinnell) during my show. It was the edited version, which is natural, since it's for radio. We decided to play track 7, "It's a Motherf***er," which has been altered on the edited version to be "It's a Monstertrucker." This would be really bad, except they designed the label (and the lyrics sheet inside) to clearly show that this is not the original lyric. The appearance is that "monstertrucker" has been pasted (at an angle!) on top of the offending word. In the song, the eels have inserted a guy saying the new word on a bullhorn or cb radio or something. His tone of voice clearly does not fit with the song, but it's not supposed to. The guy also mutters some radio-talk during non-lyric sections. The effect is sinilar to the girl on the phone during "manchild" on Beautiful Freak. In any case, the eels have taken what could have been a really bad situation and done something artistic with it. Whether or not they were happy with that remains to be seen. But I'm impressed enough that I may seek to buy this version.Apart from this specific album, let's face it. Music editing is an unfortunate reality in today's world of college radio and Walmart. I would not, for instance, want an edited copy of Rage's Battle of Los Angeles, but there may be people out there who do, or who want their children to. You are not asked or forced to buy this version, but it is available to those who like the eels' music but object to explicit content."

Agreed

Fred Beukema | 03/17/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"E writes amazing lyrics. The fact Dreamworks felt the need to make an edited version of this album is truly obscene. Go buy the uncensored version and hear an amazing album the way it was meant to be heard."