Music / Beautiful Freak

"You're such a beautiful freak/I wish there were more just like you/You're not like all of the others/And that is why I love you..."

Beautiful Freak is the 1996 debut album by Eels, best known for the audience favorites "Beautiful Freak", "Novocaine For The Soul", "Rags To Rags", "Your Lucky Day In Hell" and "Susan's House".

Tracklist

1. "Novocaine for the Soul" (3:08)
2. "Susan's House" (3:54)
3. "Rags to Rags" (3:49)
4. "Beautiful Freak" (3:34)
5. "Not Ready Yet" (4:46)
6. "My Beloved Monster" (2:13)
7. "Flower" (3:38)
8. "Guest List" (3:13)
9. "Mental" (3:11)
10. "Spunky" (3:11)
11. "Your Lucky Day in Hell" (4:28)
12. "Manchild" (4:05)

Novocaine For The Tropes:

• Accentuate the Negative: Half of the plot is about lead singer E.'s personal troubles with rejected love affairs and feeling alienated.
• Album Title Drop: "Beautiful Freak"
  You're such a... beautiful freak.
• Alliterative Title: "Rags To Rags".
• Alllowercaseletters: The artwork to Beautiful Freak
• Bastard Bastard: "Your Lucky Day In Hell".
  "Mama gripped on to the milkman's hand
  And then she finally gave birth"
• Black Comedy: Particularly the America's Funniest Home Videos parody video for "Rags to Rags".
• Born Unlucky: "Your Lucky Day In Hell", where the protagonist is apparently born out of wedlock.
  "Mama gripped on to the milkman's hand
  And then she finally gave birth"
• Cradle of Loneliness: Most of the lyrics, especially "Guest List".
• Creepy Blue Eyes and Creepy Child: The girl on the album cover.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The album cover.
• Face Death with Dignity: Subverted in "Susan's House".
  Down by the donut prince
  A fifteen year old boy lies on the sidewalk
  With a bullet in his forehead
  In a final act of indignity
  The paramedics take off all his clothes
  For the whole world to see
  While they put him in the bag
• Fading into the Next Song: "Susan's House" does this in "Rags To Rags".
• Freaky Is Cool: "Beautiful Freak", "My Beloved Monster".
  Some people say you have a problem
  But that problem lies only with them.
  Just cause you are not like the others
  But that is why I love you.
• In the Style of: "Flower" has a choir singing.
• Instant Sedation: "Novocaine For The Soul".
  You better give me something, so I won't die
  Novocaine for the soul, before I splatter up
• Last Note Nightmare: "My Beloved Monster" ends with some discordant electronic screeches during the very last part of the song.
• Lyrical Dissonance: "Susan's House" is a cheery song about someone going to Susan's house, while he witnesses all kinds of disturbing things going on.
  • "Novocaine For The Soul"
  Life is good and I feel great
  'Cause mother said I was a great mistake
• Manchild: "Manchild", strangely enough.
• Mood Whiplash: "Susan's House" switches from one of the weirdest, darkest verses in the band's canon (and that's saying something) to the most beautiful, piano-led chorus they've ever come up with.
• Nightmare Face: The girl on the album cover. To make matters worse, the disc tray image is a close-up of her eye!
• One-Woman Song: "Susan's House", "Spunky".
• One-Word Title: "Flower", "Mental", "Spunky" and "Manchild".
• Pep-Talk Song: "Beautiful Freak", about the fact that being different just makes you special and that the others are wrong for thinking you have a problem.
• Rags to Riches: Subverted by "Rags To Rags", where the protagonist's life just gets worse.
• Recycled Lyrics: "Flower" borrows some lyrics from E.'s first album Bad Dude In Love (1985) (which is such an Old Shame to him that he refuses to comment on it.)
• Shout-Out:
  • "Novocaine For The Soul" samples Fats Domino's "Let the Four Winds Blow" (1961).
    • The song was used as the theme song of Trigger Happy TV.
  • "Susan's House" samples the piano introduction from "Love Finds Its Own Way" (1974) by Gladys Knight And The Pips.
  • "My Beloved Monster" has a melodical shout-out to the Soul song "My Love" by The Temptations.
    • The song was used, fittingly, in Shrek.
  • "Guest List" has a shout-out to The Beatles' song "Baby, You're A Rich Man" from Magical Mystery Tour.
    How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?.
  • "Your Lucky Day In Hell" was featured in Scream 2 (1997), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Dead Man on Campus (1998) and Yes-Man (2008).
    • The line about Winston Churchill in drag is likely a reference to the Genesis song "Supper's Ready".
• Stock Sound Effects: LP scratching sounds at the start of "Novocaine For The Soul" and "Susan's House" has cheering children. A crowd can be heard at the start of "Rags to Rags" and "My Beloved Monster". The answering machine message in "Manchild" is a real one from E's sister, who suffered from depression and schizophrenia, and committed suicide not long after the album was released. Knowing this makes dialogue like "Because we're troopers" and "God...why am I so tired?" particularly chilling and heartbreaking.
• Stop and Go: "Novocaine For The Soul" has a long awkward pause right before the bridge. It's fairly unexpected because it's not remotely a fast song.
• Take That!: "Susan's House"
  TV sets are spewing Baywatch.
  • According to E, it's also a joke at the expense of Tommy Walter, the bassist on the album, who had previously worked on music for television shows including Baywatch.
• Teen Pregnancy: "Susan's House"
  Here comes a girl with long brown hair
  Who can't be more than seventeen
  She sucks on a red popsicle while she pushes a baby girl
  In a pink carriage
  And i'm thinking that must be her sister
  That must be her sister, right?
• Title Track: "Beautiful Freak".
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: "Beautiful Freak"
  Too good for this world
  But I hope you will stay
  And I'll be here to see that you don't fade away
• Unluckily Lucky: "Your Lucky Day In Hell" about someone whose life has been unlucky from the start, but tries to marvel at the thought of having one lucky day in his awful life. As the title indicates this doesn't provide much fun to look forward to.

• Real Life Writes the Plot: Susan was a girl E. used to know. She is the subject in both "Susan's House" and "Beautiful Freak".

---