LA-based Eels are an edgy indie rock outfit led by the mercurial Mark Oliver Everett. Over the course of 15 albums of original material he’s constantly pushed his creativity, boldly venturing into different genres and trying out new sonic textures. And that’s what great creative artists should do. But selfishly I can’t help longing for his early days when he was just a man called E. Before Eels became a thing Everett debuted as a solo artist in 1992 under the moniker E, releasing a confident, fully realized long-layer simply entitled A Man Called E. The record was a delightful mash of whimsical wordplay and hooky tunes, cast in a distinctive style. Lyrically, songs like “Hello Cruel World,” “Fitting in With the Misfits” and “Nowheresville” captured the early nineties youthful sense of disoriented ennui. Musically, the songs got into your head and tended to stay there. The 1993 follow up Broken Toy Shop furthered developed the formula, delivering another load of superbly melodic tunes like “The Only Thing I Care About,” “L.A. River” and “Tomorrow I’ll Be Nine.” When that didn’t take off it seemed that E closed shop in favour of Everett’s new, rockier vehicle Eels.

But what if E never really went away? Maybe a little bit of that early E vibe remained a part of the Eels project. It’s worth a look. To that end we’ve examined every Eels LP in search of suitably E-worthy material and the good news is that all 15 Eels albums have their E-moments. Some more than one. Below is a list of Eels’ releases and our E selection for each – enough for a double album – with hyperlinks to sources where they are available and some indication of our faves.

Beautiful Freak (1996) “Your Lucky Day in Hell“
Electro-Shock Blues (1998) “P.S. You Rock My World”
Daisies of the Galaxy (2000) “Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues”
Souljacker (2001) “Friendly Ghost”
Shootenanny! (2003) “Wrong About Bobby”
Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (2005) “Going Fetal”
Hombre Lobo (2009) “In My Dreams”
End Times (2010) “Mansions of Los Feliz”
Tomorrow Morning (2010) “Swimming Lesson”
Wonderful, Glorious (2013) “I’m Your Brave Little Soldier”
The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett (2014) “Where I’m From”
The Deconstruction (2018) “The Deconstruction”
Earth to Dora (2020) “The Gentle Souls”
Extreme Witchcraft (2022) “Learning While I Lose”
Eels Time! (2024) “And You Run”

I think these 15 cuts have that distinctive early E aura about them. They’re poppy, sometimes a bit twee, and tend to be concise and carefully assembled, at least when we compare them to other Eels material that can be more abrupt and earthy. Hands down “Wrong About Bobby” from Shootenanny! is the most E track not appearing on an E LP. “Going Fetal” from Blinking Lights and Other Revelations would come next for me. It’s got those alluring pop hooks that draw you in. Then a strong third would be “Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues” from Daisies of the Galaxy. The vocal is so solo E. Of course, you might make different choices. Frankly, the most recent “And You Run” from 2024’s Eels Time! is another strong contender.

Artists will go where the muse takes them. Sometimes that takes them in a direction away from what any individual fan may cherish most. For me, A Man Called E will remain one of my fave albums of the 1990s. Luckily a bit of that E keeps showing up on everything Mark Everett puts out.

You can keep up with Eels at their website and Facebook pages.