First Impressions: Eels, End Times
By Staff on December 16, 2009
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Eels
End Times
Vagrant
Release date: Jan. 19, 2010
Track listing:
1. The Beginning
2. Gone Man
3. In My Younger Days
4. Mansions of Los Feliz
5. A Line In The Dirt
6. End Times
7. Apple Trees
8. Paradise Blues
9. Nowadays
10. Unhinged
11. High and Lonesome
12. I Need A Mother
13. Little Bird
14. On My Feet
First Impressions:
-Eels frontman Mark Oliver Everett has gone through several heavy ordeals since 1996’s Beautiful Freak rippled the music scene—the passing of loved ones (including his sister) and his mother's cancer diagnosis. Although many albums have followed, Everett’s change in attitude and life perspective is perhaps most apparent on End Times. After the racing “Gone Man,” End Times softens with “In My Younger Day,” a slowly unraveling ballad that features intricate melodies and other-worldly sounds as the backdrop for Everett’s contemplative lyrics that hint at love and loss: But I’ve had enough/ Been through some stuff/ And I don’t need anymore misery to teach me what I should be/ I just want you back. It's the first song on the record to open the door to Everett's emotional vault—a door that remains open throughout the album.
-When the first twangs of “Mansions of Los Feliz” ring out after “In My Younger Days,” it automatically seems like End Times has done a 180, and it has—sound-wise. But as Everett delivers his tormented lyrics (about "burning flesh," "poor souls," and the "secrets hidden in the mansion walls") over a catchy folk melody that can easily be used for a sunny montage in a new wave film, it presents a return to the melancholy pop that made the Eels famous.
-“End Times,” which somewhat perplexingly appears at the album’s midpoint rather than its end, is possibly the album's most stripped-bare track. Everett’s voice is raw, unguarded, and uncomfortably intimate as he softly sings: End times are here.
-Sprinkled throughout End Times are experimental interludes that remind the listener of the outside world, delivering a breath of fresh—if a bit glum—air to the Everett’s musical sphere. On “Apple Trees,” Everett delivers a brief stream of conscious monologue about driving on the highway and looking at rows and rows of apple trees and feeling like one in a million. Another, “High and Lonesome,” consists of rain falling onto a rooftop for 30 seconds, as thunder, a phone line’s busy signal, and baritone church bells sound off in the background.
- The grunge-influenced, tambourine-striking, angst-ridden "Unhinged," which shows up later in the album, demonstrates the group's remarkable fluidity when it comes to crossing genres and experimenting with range and styles. The fact that "Unhinged" does not sound out of place when paired between two softer, melodic, and more introspective songs only further highlights the group's mastery of this skill.
Key Tracks:
“In My Younger Days,” “Mansions of Los Feliz,” “End Times,” “Apple Trees,” “Unhinged”
Predictions:
End Times provides fans with a cohesive, evenly-paced album that demonstrates the band’s maturity but still maintains the group’s fresh innovation and penchant for genre-bending that it first displayed on the landmark album, Beautiful Freak. More than anything, End Times reveals to the listener that this is Everett’s honest way of coping with the past.
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