231. Song No. 3,483: “Flyswatter,” Eels
Daisies of the Galaxy, 2000

When a song starts off with distinctive haunted carousel vibes, lyrics that tell you “don’t think twice about whatever keeps you itching” are more ominous than comforting. But when that same ditty about kitchen spiders, head lice and determined little field mice hellbent on finding their way into your basement is this viciously catchy, it makes it a little easier to internalize the begrudging realization that you’re not immune from any of life’s myriad horrors and that even the natural world’s decidedly low-stakes ones really should be accepted as the inevitable consequence of sharing a sliver of earth with typically invisible but disproportionately horrifying creepy crawlies, scurrying critters and other tiny but wholly uninvited houseguests that you can either ignore until they become a bigger problem or do something about.

Despite invoking the very eight-legged beasties that make me squirm and dissolve into terrified lady-yips until someone better at dealing with dime-sized demons than I am (usually my hero of a husband, who knows better than to ask what’s under that plastic cup in the living room and has long ago accepted his role as brave slayer of multi-legged mini-monsters) handles the situation, this was one of the first songs I loved from an album that I have been listening to and loving since high school. It is one of the most relentlessly upbeat songs Mark Oliver Everett recorded under the Eels moniker that early in the band’s career (admittedly, Daisies of the Galaxy is by in large more uplifting and optimistic than its two predecessors, though being the follow-up to the somber reckonings of Electro-Shock Blues makes this sound like a veritable party album by comparison anyway), so much so that it adds to that maniacal energy that some familiar twinkly instrumentalization recast with a vaguely threatening undercurrent underscores so well.

The more it goes on, though, that low-key sinister aura gives way to the realization that you DO have tools at your disposal to combat the very things that worry you, if you just accept that “if you think you’re gonna be spared, you’re wrong” and respond accordingly as your own savior, whether it’s external forces you need to face down or your own internal battles that no one but you can take on.