Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Outstanding

Customer Rating:

I didn't know what to expect from this album at all so what a fantastic surprise it turned out to be. The first thing that struck me was how immediate the album was for me. There were very few 'growers' on the it. I loved most of them straight away. To me this is E at his best. A perfect mix of beautiful melodies, great rockers and seriously catchy tunes. The closest album in style to 'Beautiful Freak' in my opinion.

The best album ever from the best band!	Customer Rating:
A short review because there's not much to say to be honest! I love E and this is quite simply a fantastic album. Everything he does is carefully created and delivered and this is his best and most varied album in my opinion. Brilliant!

Their most under-rated album?

Customer Rating:

Reading through some of the other reviews from Amazon customer's on this album reinforces my view that Shootenanny! doesn't always get the credit it deserves. While it is true that the previous 4 albums were always going to be a hard act to follow, Eel's 5th album shouldn't be condemned as simply a taster for the (admittedly magnificent) Blinking Lights. Opening track "All In A Day's Work" displays E's black humour at it's best, while "Saturday Morning", as another reviewer pointed out already, should evoke fond memories for any of us who recall what it was like to be a kid waking up at the start of the weekend wondering what havoc we could cause that day-I could even claim that listening to it has made me more forgiving of my own kids when they run riot through my flat of a Saturday afternoon. Indeed, to me at least, it is this ability to write poignantly on any subject from childhood experience to the (rather more dark) material of "Restraining Order Blues" which marks Mark "E" Everett out as one of the finest songwriters of this generation(along with the wonderful Ian McNabb-but that's another story...) But this is not a "bleak" album in the way that say, "Electro-Shock Blues" was, although still a fine work in itself maybe not the best "starting point" for the curious first-time Eel's purchaser? Admittedly I am too sentimental for my own good but the two songs which make this album for me are the glorious "Numbered Days" and to a slightly lesser extent the closer "Somebody Loves You". If these songs don't fail to melt the hardest heart or bring solace to anybody who(like most of us)has had a hard time either generally or from the dreaded "affairs of the heart" then there really is no hope for you(and I speak as a cynic). Much is made(quite rightly) of the fact that E is a talented multi-instrumentalist, but what makes this album for me is his voice-certainly not classically beautiful by any means but the sheer empathy, humanity and world-weariness he feels really comes through on Shootenanny!-indeed there are few better commentators on the human condition in the world of music at the moment. In conclusion, if you've never bought an Eels album before, then you won't go wrong with any of them but please don't let yourself be put off "Shootenanny!" as some sort of "Second-Rate" Eels product-it stands up on it's own and is well worth your consideration.

My favourite album

Customer Rating:

I have been trying to decide which is my favourite album of all time between "Elephant by the White Stripes, "Absolution" by Muse or this, and I think this album just wins it, because I can relate to the lyrics in almost every song, so they all mean something to me. I really do think this is a masterpiece. After a few listens, there was only one track I did not like - "Fashion Awards", but I persevered with it and I even find myself humming that from time to time. This is one of only a few albums I can listen over and over without getting bored.

Heard it before and better	Customer Rating:
I love Eels , particularly 'Daisies' and 'Electro-Shock' but this does sound like a clumsy attempt at keeping everyone happy until the epic 'Blinking Lights...' arrives. Songs sound like weak returns to familiar ideas. 'Love of the Loveless' is pleasnat enough but the best track for me by a clear mile is the stunning 'Agony'