Eels‘ new album ‘End Times’ is an excruciatingly bummed out account of love lost, thematic heartbreak- kind of like Eeyore singing the blues. Appropriately, today looked a lot like end times- with floods, storms and tornado warnings, the sun is now eerily out despite caution that we should all take safety indoors. California, this is not what I signed up for. End times are near.

Although I love End Times, I get really really sad listening to it. I was driving around with my friend Geoff the other day, and I asked him why he thinks people like sad songs, I guess it’s contemplative? We are a generation of overthinkers, and the heartbroken young.

Why am I still listening to this? I mean, the track ‘High and Lonesome’ is JUST THE SOUND OF RAIN FALLING. He seems to have hit a low point, broken down, lonely and spiritually broke. This is the record of a reluctant defeatist, conquered by love or the lack of it. A dude that needs his mother, and can only befriend birds, and sings songs about homeless men with signs. Unhinged is a little more upbeat, more aggressive, angry. 

I love the track called ‘Apple Trees’ when he talks about picking the one tree out of the billions lined up in rows along the roadside. Again, sad. So very sad. 

Eels- On My Feet

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Eels- End Times

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Eels- Apple Trees

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‘End Times’ or more accurately, 2012 is the hypothetical dawn of a new era, in universal consciousness caused by some planetary alignment, or it’s Judgment day- or, it’s a non existent time that has been fear mongering the ill-informed masses for the passed few years all thanks to the Mayans. Whatever it is, it can be discussed at length every evening around 11pm on AM640 Radio, on a little program called ‘Coast to Coast’ with host- George Noory.

‘Coast to Coast’ is a strange, yet wildly entertaining program often listened to on night drives back from the city- where topics of UFOs, the paranormal, the illuminati and the like can be discussed among scholars in these fields- thinkers, writers, experts etc. They’ll speak of Vampires, for example, with great conviction- never questioning the irrationality to claiming their existence, just advising you on how to stay protected- and they’re serious about it. Sometimes I wonder about the End Times and if these whackos actually are right, and leave that slice of doubt in my mind reserved for them just so I don’t feel like a total idiot when the aliens arrive, or whatever is supposed to happen.

Anyway, I started thinking about that because the EELS new record, ‘End Times’ is out in Jan 19. 2010, just six months after the release of Hombre Lobo. In fact, if you go to their website, there’s a giant stop watch counting down to the ‘End Times’. I like EELS, not just because Michael Everett’s beard is a grand wonder, (note: according to his beard-related facts, occasionally it is accidentally zipped into his jacket, which is painful.) But because his music is always painfully hopeless, and permeates the heart of a lonely man like a warm drink. There is a solidarity in that kind of blues. If the End truly is near, then I’d say- let’s work on that whole solidarity thing, because we belong together, and we’ll go out together too. 

Tracklist:

01 The Beginning
02 Gone Man
03 In My Younger Days
04 Mansions of Los Feliz
05 A Line In The Dirt
06 End Times
07 Apple Trees
08 Paradise Blues
09 Nowadays
10 Unhinged
11 High and Lonesome
12 I Need a Mother
13 Little Bird
14 On My Feet

Their single, ‘That Look You Give That Guy’ off Hombre Lobo has a new video featuring a moderately well known super babe Padma Lakshmi.

EELS- That Look You Give That Guy

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