"The funeral is over - let's go to the wake!" So declares eels frontman E, referring to Daisies of the Galaxy (DreamWorks Records), the follow-up to 1998's acclaimed Electro-shock Blues.

Daisies of the Galaxy(released March 14, 2000) is E's big step toward embracing life after tragedy. "It's sort of the antidote to Electro-shock Blues," he says. "This record has two songs with the word 'daisies' in the title, and neither of them has the words 'pushing up' before it."

Then again, Daisies may simply be the sound of a guy making music he loves and needs. "I needed to make something in love with life for my own sanity," E relates. "It became important that I make simple, pure, sweet music." Electro-shock Blues was inspired largely by the suicide of E's sister and the long illness and imminent death of his mother. Presenting an unblinking look at mental illness and death, it nonetheless concluded with the words "maybe it's time to live."

And though Daisies of the Galaxy opens with the sound of a funeral, it's a New Orleans-style funeral. "I wanted to make a fun, pretty record that was full of life," says E (who was once named Mark Oliver Everett). "During the Daisies sessions I realized we were making two different records. One was loud, dark and scary and full of feedback; the other was more acoustic and positive. I only wanted to put out the latter now - even if it doesn't have any big guitar on it, or a guy going 'heeYYYYEAAAAAHHHH!'"

Daisies was written and produced by E and recorded mostly in his Los Angeles basement with eels drummer Butch, Grant Lee Buffalo's Grant Lee Phillips on bass and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck on piano, guitar and bass. The sessions were interrupted when E returned to his native Virginia to clean out his late parent's house (see "Estate Sale," written with Buck), where he found a 1950s-era Greek children's book that now constitutes the record's artwork. "One thing is for certain," E reveals. "I am at my happiest while making a record. Before it and after it suck, but making it is it for me."

Daisies of the Galaxy is the third album he's made under the eels moniker, following two earlier discs recorded as E (the singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist claims his single-lettered moniker is an old nickname gone too far). "There is no such thing as the eels," illuminates E, whose friends often use the word "cantankerous" to describe him. "The eels is an ever-changing vehicle for my songs. This year we're going out on tour with just me and Butch and a couple of string and horn players." eels' mercurial nature is further explored when the project's mastermind reports: "We've already recorded some heavy stuff with our bass-playing friend Adam [Siegal], and I know that after we've been playing these pretty songs for a while, I'm gonna feel the need to squeal some loud, fucked-up noises at you." But for now, E would like all to enjoy Daisies of the Galaxy. He concludes of the disc: "If Electro-shock Blues was the phone call in the middle of the night that the world doesn't want to answer, then Daisies of the Galaxy is the hotel wake-up call that says your lovely breakfast is ready."