Eels Add Playful Rock Energy to Look at Life’s Complexities

The Eels’ new album doesn’t come out until mid-March, but fans of E, the acclaimed singer-songwriter who leads the Los Angeles band, know the drill: “Daisies of the Galaxy” will be an upbeat coda to the “Electro-Shock Blues,” the 1998 album that dazzled critics but repelled record buyers with its grueling tour of suicide, cancer wards and funerals.

“I think, you know, I’ll be OK,” E sang on Thursday at the Roxy, where he played a show previewing the new album and unveiling the new Eels lineup. That was a central theme, and if the recovery from despair seems more wary than resounding in some of the 10 “Daisies” songs the Eels played, it’s because E refuses to codify emotional reality into a convenient package. His determination to capture life’s complex, ambiguous, paradoxical contours is what makes his songs so true and touching.

If cautious optimism is the byword, Thursday’s often playful show did in fact swing, drive and bounce, with newcomers such as “Tiger in My Tank” and “Flyswatter” adding a rock energy to the Eels’ fundamental pop buoyancy. “Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues” sounds like Prince tackling the three-chord classic “Hang on Sloopy,” and E offered his idea of a new dance craze in “Do the Fetal.”

The group has added a two-man horn section and singer/multi-instrumentalist Lisa Germano to its core trio, allowing E to prowl a broader sonic terrain. The show opened with a sort of chamber-group suite of Eels themes that underscored E’s debt to the spirit and style of Brian Wilson.

In a typical Eels twist, the group supplemented the new songs and a few old favorites with a half-dozen unfamiliar tunes. This is not only one of the brightest forces in pop music, but also one of the most protean.