The man called E has stepped into another light, a personal abyss where he lays out his divorce for you and me. EELS have quickly churned out End Times, and singer-songwriter Mark Oliver Everett a.k.a. E should swap his sobriquet for D. Dejected, despondent, destroyed, dispirited, dismal and disconsolate. Putting out melancholic lyrics is nothing new for the band, after all they were the poster boys of break-ups in a pre-emo world. But this one is simply more tragic, more real, from In My Younger Days to I Need A Mother. Recorded on a 4-track recorder, the tracks are chiefly quiet and somber, with a miserable E, straining to rasp out the verses of song. The content teems with sobering life-observations, and because of someone else’s obvious pain, you find yourself feeling better about your own life, or at least empathizing with the narrator. A hermit, he finds solace in the trappings of his own mind, “It’s a pretty bad place outside this door… It’s just me, myself and the secrets,” and “I keep to myself, Everybody else can look some other way.” The insertion of Apple Trees and High And Lonesome displays the insignificance he feels, and the complete grimness of his lonely existence. E’s new survival guide is uncomplicated and basic. Don’t walk too slow. Say “How do you do?” and “Have a nice day,” even though you could care less if you got an answer back. Thankfully, the long-faced fellow shows a glimmer of hope in the closing track of the album, On My Feet, and hopefully, the process of producing it was a cathartic expression for him. Otherwise, our protagonist should be on suicide watch.
Key Tracks: Mansions of Los Feliz, Little Bird, Apple Trees
Moods: Distraught, Weary, Bittersweet, Quirky, Melancholy, Ironic
Buy: End Times
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