Eels – End Times
I described this a couple of podcasts ago as Eels-lite, and to a degree it is. A little like their last record, the musical inventiveness has pretty much gone and the song structures are all the same and you kinda know what you’re going to get from the first few minutes.
Mrs. Toad was pretty horrified when she first heard it, frankly, and there is a bit much really bland bluesy stuff in here, with a medium pace, a medium delivery and all sorts of other mediumness too. That stuff is, I will admit, a little frustrating.
Nevertheless, the core things which made Eels great in the first place have not gone, for all they may have settled down somewhat. Everett is a really, really sympathetic lyricist and a good few of these songs demonstrate that he is a long way from losing his knack for making you really genuinely feel what he is feeling. Is it lyrics, or just the sheer believability of his voice – I don’t know.
He hasn’t lost the knack for putting his finger on what it is which causes him to hurt and explaining it in a manner which makes you not so much understand his pain, but be able to imagine exactly what it would feel like if you yourself felt that same pain. Written down, that difference may seem almost meaningless, but in terms of an emotional reaction to a record it is surprisingly important.
Blinking Lights and Other Revelations was also quite stylistically predictable, but it contained its surprises in tiny parcels within the individual songs, rather than making them apparent in the overall record. This one doesn’t even do that, but it still talks to you in a gentle yet sincere manner until you find yourself beginning to understand it.
At this stage Mark Oliver Everett’s music has become an old friend, and it’s kind of in this manner which this record has very slowly become one I am really enjoying. Sure, there’s some stuff I really am not into, and there’s a real feeling of musical coasting at times. Somehow, though, Everett seems to have got to a stage where the flair and excitement has gone out of his music, but none of the character or sincerity, and he’s managed to get me to travel with him as he relaxes into middle age. So in a sense this album feels somewhat like sharing a late night whiskey or glass of wine with someone you’ve known for years. Sure the topics of conversation are all the same as they were when you were young, but by this stage the exchange of words is not about debate or any real exchange of information, it’s simply a warm way of reconnecting with someone and re-establishing those bonds of affection which have formed over the years.
Eels – In My Younger Days
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
