Eels (Rolling)

Last saw them in 2014 at the Barbican and he sounded as lovely as ever. He even got into the crowd and was high hugging people. I love E :slight_smile:

first track. immediately love it.

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yeah i dig this. i’ll prob preorder the record on payday

July tour. Just saw a date announced for the Glasgow Academy (meh…) on Wednesday 4th.

EDIT: Also, tickets not onsale until neeext Friday.

Yep. It’s all kicking off Eels style !

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Utterly mad to think Pitchfork gave two of his albums 3/10 (I’m not a fan of End Times but 3/10 is taking the piss) and one of them 2/10! Thank god they didn’t review the last two albums.

really like that song also! It’s like the old style Eels that I used to love - quirky different sounds and nice strings. I couldn’t name a single song from any of the albums after Blink Lights, and have generally just found them pretty much one-paced. I think I did actually enjoy the last album, but maybe only in comparison to the ones beforehand. Maybe I should go back and have another listen to them to see if I slightly like them more.

Other than EOTR, it’s been ages since I’ve gone to a proper Eels gig. Will possibly consider going to the Brixton gig I think.

Think they deliberately gave his stuff to writers who hated him. Probably to create some kind of edgy narrative

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Every time I hear about John Legend I think about E geting mad about him in his book because he asked E to put out his cigar on Jools Holland or something.

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Nice vibe on that, making me keen to hear more. Unlike (say) the early tracks from Jack White.

Re. P/fork. Yeah, their blind and unfathomable dislike of Eels is one reason I started to lose respect for their reviews. The vitriol makes it seem like a personal vendetta (who knows for why) and an opportunity to spout the hate, than the expression of real opinion.

I note they’ve done an article about the new album announcement, first time they’ve mentioned him in years. Maybe their Conde Nast overlords are Eels fans!

when i was younger i guessed it was because he was a popular alternative artist and they were only interested in shit like Clap your ballsacks say yeah! or whatever. But that makes no sense cos they praise plenty of other popular alt artists. Eels self releases most his stuff now too. Fuck 'em.

I’m afraid I have to say I thought last 4 albums were pretty awful… can’t even remember Wonderful, Glorious. Given up hope now. Such a shame as I loved pretty much everything up to and including El Hombre. At one time I would travel the country seeing them, used to love him so much, but it all got so repetitive, self indulgent and less inventive.

Wonderful, Glorious has some great tunes on it. I would agree that Tomorrow Morning, End Times and The Cautionary Tales were all a bit underwhelming give or take the odd song here and there.

Really liked ‘The Cautionary Tales…’ which to my mind was him making the break up album that he wanted to do with ‘End Times’.

He needed to step back for a few years because there was some repetition with the albums that followed Hombre Lobo. But there are gems on all those albums. Listen again to Agatha Chang or the title track on the last one, and for all that they mine furrows he’s mined before, they absolutely nail it.

Tour dates

Early July. Brixton, Manchester, Glasgow, Dublin.

Edit - just seen posted earlier…

Wonderful, Glorious is proper great. The Turnaround is one of my favourite Eels songs.

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I would love to have a few beers with E. Seems like a absolutely top bloke. Message from him posted on eels website…

Hi,
We could do the usual record company “bio” about this new record, but, seriously… who gives a fuck.

The world is a mess. This is just music. Music by someone who tends to believe that change starts in your own backyard. I’m just optimistic enough to believe that kind of thing can still help people.

It doesn’t have any answers, other than maybe that there is no answer, the dust never settles, everything is out of control, etc. But it offers this: you can make changes. Thus, you can change the world. Right?

Maybe if there’s anything we have any true control over, it’s how we see things. There’s a song about that here. The “our” of “In Our Cathedral” is the collective “our” — all of us. Your point of view. As the great Roger Miller once said, “You can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you’ve a mind to.” He said it better than I did.

The other thing we can do while everything’s such a mess is just try to be kind. Why not? We all have bad days, but why not put in the effort whenever possible? Nobody has it easy, however their story may appear from a distance. So why not try to be nice? Starting with yourself. That’s a nice change for the world right there. Good things will grow out of that. There are some songs along those lines here as well.

I’ve been through some stuff, but I’m no expert. I’m trying to dead reckon my way same as anyone. I’m really just talking to myself here, looking for what’s really there under all the defenses. But maybe it could help you too?

Or: Fuck all this jibber jabber and see if you like this new record.

Here are 15 new EELS tracks that may or may not inspire, rock, or not rock you. The world is going nuts. But if you look for it, there is still great beauty to be found. Sometimes you don’t even have to look for it. Other times you have to try to make it yourself. And then there are times you have to tear something apart to find something beautiful inside.

Best wishes on future endeavors,
E
EELS guy

Some trivia pertaining to THE DECONSTRUCTION:

It was performed by E, Koool G Murder and P-Boo
with The Deconstruction Orchestra & Choir

It was produced by E
and some songs were produced with Mickey Petralia (marking his first time in an EELS production chair since the ELECTRO-SHOCK BLUES album).

It was recorded at The Compound, Los Feliz, CA
and at The Pie, Pasadena, CA

It’s dedicated to our fallen brother, Bobby, Jr.

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Would anyone willing to make a playlist of the best eels stuff since blinking lights?

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I’d give that a go if I had the time. This would definitely be on there:

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