Band : Eels
Album title : End Times
Label : Cooperative Music
Distributor : V2
Release date : 18/01/2010
Release : CD

Ispiration is a weird thing. Suddenly it leaves you, and your creativity goes out at the same time. Eels frontman (and centerpiece) Mark Oliver Everett (aka E) had a thing like that happening to him after releasing 2005’s Blinking Lights And Other Revelations.

To bridge the gap, Eels released the Eels With Strings: Live At Town Hall (recorded during the band’s 2005 Eels With Strings tour) in February 2006, then released two compilations (Meet the Eels: Essential Eels Vol. 1 spanning the first decade of the band with singles from all their albums and including a DVD with the band’s music clips and one live performance video; and Useless Trinkets, a compilation of 50 B-sides and rarities including this time a DVD with the band’s concert at 2006’s Lolapalooza) in early 2008. Promotion needed for these releases saw Eels on another world tour, and during the tour the band released another CD/DVD titled Live In Person!, recorded at the London Astoria in 2006. Over the years, several Eels songs ended up in the soundtracks off a variety of movies, and the 2008 comedy Yes Man (featuring Jim Carrey) has no less than 9 songs by the band, including a brand new one.

Apparently, with 2009’s Hombre Lobo (released on June 2, review by collegue Jeroen posted 25/08) E’s inspiration returned, because not even 8 months later we’re treated to the band’s 8th studio album! 4 days before the release, the band put the entire album on their MySpace page. Barely 4 days after the official release of the album (issued in several forms and available as standard edition, deluxe edition with bonus CD in the UK, iTunes download, and 12-inch vinyl LP + 7-inch EP, the release coincided with the release of a video for the album’s title track), the band was able to put positive, some even raving, reviews from some 40 magazines to their credit. In spite of tall that praise, I find but few interesting moments among the 14 songs on this 40-minute album…most of the songs sounding too depressing for me! You see, Eels usually works with a different concept per album, and where Hombre Lobo tackled the issues of desire, End Times deals with the loss of his great love and “…struggling with his faith in an increasingly hostile world teethering on self-destruction…” (from myspace.com/eels, where you’ll also find several videos). Overall, there’s an introvert side to this album in the lyrics, something which is enhanced by the minimalistic use of (acoustic) instruments in most of the songs. The only times when Eels becomes more interesting (to me), is when the instrumental colouration is expanded somewhat (I’ll bring no examples to the fore, you can listen to the whole album yourself…as long as it stays posted on the band’s MySpace!).

73/100

Tony.