Disco de Eels: “End Times [Deluxe Edition]”

"Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss." (Nick Hornby - High Fidelity).

Mark Everett wasn't the most cheerful guy to begin with. Deaths of parents and siblings leave a mark and his music with the eels has always had a sad undertone. And don't expect anything new on `End Times'. Let's face it, even the title is depressing. The theme of the album is a divorce and the ensuing depression. Recorded mostly at home on a simple four-track the songs are simple and vintage E. Mostly just him strumming some chords on a guitar or playing them on a keyboard.

Starting in heaven he slowly spirals down into the phases that are part of breaking up, including locking yourself up in your house without much outside interaction ( the beautiful Mansion of Loz Feliz). They are emotions that we have all gone through, at one point he explains seeing a million trees at the side of the road and feeling just like one of them, but still feeling lonely. At least he has his Little Bird to talk to and we have the eels we can listen to, to let us know that even though we feel awful at times, there are millions more that feel the same. (from [...])

I don't understand why some people don't like this record, personally, it blew me away. Maybe people are so commercialized, they don't know great music whan they hear it. I think it's one of the most immpressive records I've heard in a while, and I own 600+ of them. What blew me away the most is the songwriting, it's very much what great songwriting is about. I love the lo-fi minimalism, and E has pulled it off brilliantly here. So, if you don't like it, oh well, if you do, it's a must-have record.

You would have thought that E had purged all of his demons with 2005's "Blinking Lights and Other Revelations", a masterful double disc that was drenched in emotional honesty. Not so fast. Just when it seemed that E was taking a break from writing personal songs (see last year's Hombre Lobo), he and his band return with a beautifully bleak but ultimately hopeful "breakup" album. Inspired by E's divorce in 2005, this album has been likened to his "Blood on the Tracks". Indeed, the blood from his greiving heart is all over the 14 tracks of this release.

End Times is easily the most sparse album that the band have released to date. There is little polish on the songs collected here, and with the exception of The Mansions of Los Feliz and Paradise Blues, not a ton of hooks either. But don't worry, E's songwriting still shines. Nearly every song seems as though it has been ripped from Mark Everett's wounded heart. He provides some of his most emotionally raw lyrics to date such as when he achingly cries "I Need a Mother" or when he describes pushng his bed up against the window so it only has one side because it's a little less lonely that way. Elsewhere he identifies with the inane ramblings of a homeless man in the title track and relfects on how much easier it was to deal with a broken heart in his younger days.

Yet there is hope to be found in these tales of loss. E talks about getting back on his feet in the closing song and on another song he declares that he is fighting the hatred that is trying to consume him, even though it is getting stronger each day. These may sound like very optimistic statements, but they speak volumes about E's willingness to keep going in spite of overwheliming odds. That may be the most resonant theme that emerges from this seemingly despair filled collecton. There is always hope, but sometimes you have to want to find it. Well put, indeed.

If you're a fan of the EELS then you'll need no convincing to get this album. E continues to blow us away with beautiful and personal melodies, this album resonating with melancholy and difficult reflection of his relationship with his ex-wife whom he just divorced. Just listen to the simple song "Little Bird" if you want your heart broken.

The songs are raw and real, similar to their previous masterwork "Electro-Shock Blues". Not all songs are slow and sad -- but there's a definitive theme throughout. Beautiful and highly recommended!

Mark Oliver Everett is a man who writes through his pain. Be it the early Eels' masterpiece "Electro-Shock Blues" or this "End Times," he delivers agonizing self-reflections like few others. "End Times" is his divorce album; a bleak and relentless lo-fi downer that fits in seamlessly with Beck's "Sea Change."

Carried mainly by Everett's plaintive raspy tenor, "End Times" is often Dylan-esque where the words are less than transparent but the emotions are naked as ever. The rockabilly that propels "Gone Man" and the darkest humor of "Paradise Blues" give the album moments of levity, but for the most part, he's hiding in his basement (literally) and pouring it out into his microphone and four-track. Several of the songs are little more than Everett plunking a piano or strumming a guitar while reciting his melodic break-up poetry. Sometimes it works (the title song, "I Need a Mohrt"), and sometimes it sounds like the song you just listened to.

Which is what ultimately holds the album back. "End Times" deals in pure, undiluted sadness that Everett ties to the miserable state of the world in general, without much hope. Eels albums usually offered some kind of uplifting spirit to offset Everett's generally dour worldview. You won't get that on "End Times," although it's interesting to note that, within a year, The Eels would deliver the sunnier "Tomorrow Morning."