Ranking post-Blinking Lights albums:
Hombre Lobo
Wonderful Glorious
Tomorrow Morning
The Deconstruction
The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett
End Times
Ranking post-Blinking Lights albums:
Hombre Lobo
Wonderful Glorious
Tomorrow Morning
The Deconstruction
The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett
End Times
Id go
Hombre lobo>deconstruction>wonderful glorious>cautionary tales>end times>tomorrow morning
Some September dates for Glasgow and Manchester onsale Friday.
EDIT: Actually, this seems a bit odd… Glasgow date is playing the same venue they used for the earlier tour for this same album. Reckon there’s a new EP or something on the way?
Mate of mine just sent me this and it’s cracked me up something fierce
New song
Based on the effort originality of the cover art and time since last album, I’d speculate an album is on the way.
It’s fine. I don’t especially dislike or like it though. He’s kind of on autopilot a bit really.
the title doesn’t scream new direction
Heard it on the radio today. First few seconds - hmmm maybe, but from then no it really didn’t do it for me at all.
I used to be a huge Eels fan - except for Shootenanny which was rubbish, their albums up to and including Blinking Lights are all amazing. Each feels like a completely different sound - whether it be the almost unbearable sadness of Electro-shock Blues (my favourite), the almost child-like ‘recovery’ album Daisies…, or the straightforward but awesome rock album of Souljacker… Or even the curveball MC Honky album which was enjoyably daft.
Post Blinking Lights there are songs that I like, but none of the albums have really left much of an impression on me despite putting in quite a bit of effort into each one. (Except the last one which ironically was probably the best of the latter-bunch). They all pretty much blend into another in my memory.
I think for a real return-to-form, Eels would need to do something completely different to what’s come before rather than cranking out more of the same. So far this new song doesn’t fill me with much hope but I really, really want the album to be good.
Electro-shock blues remains one of my favourite ever albums.
Shootenanny is great!
I think the main issue (and I’m sure I’ve mentioned it a load of times on this thread in the past) is most of the albums since Hombre Lobo have been the same one-paced maudlin tone. I can’t really see him changing things up after 25 years anyway (does any artist really change things up completely after 25 years?)
Agreed with pretty much everything here, including the sign-of-things-to-come misstep of Shootenanny. (Love of the Loveless was good though)
When you include his live shows it felt like with each album he was coming back as a different ‘character’ with a different conceptual backdrop etc. It’s really been lost.
It’s a fair point, but to take the example of one of his heroes Tom Waits I guess? Those late 90s/early noughties albums were pretty distinctive
There is a big difference between 70s/80s Tom Waits yeah, though I think the difference between stuff like Rain Dogs and Mule Variations/Real Gone is less pronounced (or at least not as big a jump). Maybe E could just do a second autobiography instead?!
I also agree with everything here (especially the electroshock/Daisies/MCHonky love, and also really quite liking his last album). I don’t dislike Shootenanny, as it does have a few really good songs on it, but maybe it doesn’t fully work as a whole and it’s never one that I return to. I might give it another listen today though.
I also used to love going to Eels gigs too. He is such a great live performer, even now, but I’m less interested in his more rocky live line-up, which seems to be have been going on for a long while now. Would love a return to Eels With Strings or Horns or something next time. I loved the Daisies your so much, and the live album of that tour too. Beautiful stuff.
Agony is great as well.
Shootenanny is a weird one imho - felt very slight when it came out, but then finding out a few years later that it was made as a break from working on Blinking Lights made it make loads more sense to me.
Not listened to it years either way. Might do later and see what I think.
Shootennany is one of my favourites. I think he went for a more polished, bit more commercially sounding record, but I’m surprised it grates that much…? The first four tracks are really good. Its him going straight at his radio friendly soft rock roots. That might not be what a lot of fans came for but it’s in his sound all the way through.
Hombre Lobo’s underrated in my book and is 4/5s of a good album. The Cautionary Tales is a better fist of a breakup record than End Times. Outside of those two there’s a lot of hit-and-miss going on post Blinking Lights.
The Deconstruction sounded to me like even though he had taken a break of a few years and tried living instead of being an artist… he was facing a brick wall artistically. So not optimistic and this is just ok.
I could easily see him recording something brilliant as an old man staring down at the grave ala Warren Zevon.
I do have a soft spot for Hombre Lobo. It initially sounded a bit throwaway following the big gap after Blinking Lights but it grew on me a lot.
I definitely need to give Shootenanny a listen. It’s a massive blind spot in his discography for me.