album of the week: 3.4

EeL

For Common People

Stubbie Records (2011)

why you'll love it: unapologetic insane pop. very creative

why you'll hate it: cute to the point of nausea. not so much talent in performance

If you have managed to keep reading beyond the album cover, then congratulations. You have joined us up here on the very dangerous precipice of incurable pop-madness. It's just you, me, and EeL; who happens to be carelessly dancing along the cliff face with appendages flailing over the edge.

This is pop music, but isn't pop music supposed to have mass appeal? EeL songs aren't so catchy or sing-alongy, as they are compelling. The fate of falling in love with one seems to be more damaging to the brain than your standard pop song, or even Japanese pop song. The nightmare of pop music is typically conformity. It's opium for the masses. Not so much For Common People, which commands your attention at all times. You're always thinking when listening to this album. Most of the time, it may be "what the hell am I listening to?", but the creativity behind this pop toolset doesn't numb your brain, like (dare I say it) a Rebecca Black youtube video. Although, I can't promise that this album will not poison your brain. Intentional or not, there is an fearless amount of subversiveness in the best EeL songs. Her skills at being shockingly abrasive and nauseatingly cute are juggled better than ever in For Common People, her first album in over five years.

EeL was lumped in with the whole neo Shibuya-kei wave in the early 00's, with acts such as capsule, and Plus Tech Squeeze Box. Their electronic experiments in completely different directions sort of rendered the genre nebulous and kaput. Almost all of these bands either found all new niches to continue with, or disappeared. I never thought I'd hear a new EeL album again, so its very existence really caught me by surprise, on top of being good.

Maybe good is too subjective. I must reiterate how aggressively over the top this album is. It's more fascinating than anything, but probably the most successful output by EeL; if I am right in assumption that her goal is to make it feel like you've been hit in the head with an ACME anvil and are seeing cartoon birds spin around your head. There is a surprise around every corner of this album. From track to track, it switches between soft innocent saccharine melodies, as childish as a baby crib mobile, and electroclash levels of samples, drums, and distortion. While these songs are flying off the rails, EeL hardly changes her tone of voice, as if nothing has gone haywire. Especially in "Foolish Swines", you get a feeling like you're on that Willy Wonka boat ride through the LSD nightmare tunnel.

DEFINITELY NOT FOR EVERYBODY! This is a tough album to recommend. I think it's a perfect EeL album, and enjoy every single track. Even the couple that are just plain cutesy, and don't have any paranoid madness undertones. On the other hand, there is nothing rational or applicable to the music. It serves as a defiant corrosive acid to pop music created for mainstream appeal, which is always fun. It also wickedly neuters by the numbers anti-conformity rock or over sexualized pop, which maybe I only find to be enjoyable. This album has no friends. It alienates everybody. Proceed with caution.