 | Eels |
Eels is the moniker for Mark Oliver Everett and this album is the third in a trilogy of albums he has released all pretty closely together. I haven’t heard the first record in the trilogy Hombre Lobo, but I reviewed the edgy folky styling of the last record End Times earlier this year and while I enjoyed bits and pieces of it, it was largely a little too claustrophobic and generic folky for my tastes. Simplicity was really one of the main goals of that album I feel and while the passion of the songs did shine through occasionally, it really lived and died on a kind of passion of the performance. Now the third album in trilogy is being released, called Tomorrow Morning. This album is an album that certainly takes a much different musical and thematic approach than the predecessor and it is really a stronger, deeper and more intriguing album for it. There is more exploration, more offbeat tricks and genre/style jumping going on, all done quite well, and not quite done with the same morose tone that was prevalent on the prior record.
The album blends in a lot of more electronic and orchestral/acoustic elements to create a much broader scope of sound than the prior album, and the songs really become much more interesting because there is more space to grow and expand the songs here and to take them in different ways. The album certainly has a more hopeful tone, coinciding with the title a bit, but there is a kind of “new beginning” feeling to a lot of these songs, especially some of the notable ones like “The Morning” and “This Is Where It Gets Good”. The latter also brings in some of the subtle funk/soul influences that make an appearance on this record as it has a great riff following the title line in the song that creates a great mood to the whole song. It feels alive and mobile and the songs feel a lot more open.
The single “Spectacular Girl” is an extremely well done song that has that lazy synth line running throughout the song and the poppy orchestral chorus that altogether mix together extremely well to create that spacious indie-pop sound that sounds very free, light and open. A lot of the best songs on the album have that kind of lazy, hazy 60s California pop-rock feel to them that really works extremely well for the songs on the record. There are a few missteps on here such as “Baby Loves Me”, which is just kind of annoying and maybe a little overbearing on its passion. The true soul, almost gospel, throwback song on the album is called “Looking Up”, and while it most literally takes those influences out for a drive, it is maybe a little over-cooked and over done. The rest of the album exists extremely well in this kind of chilled out pop fuzz, that is just broken up by those songs a little jarringly.
Ultimately, the songs here are well done and there is a lot more to showcase the songwriting and the genre-leaping of the songs on this album and this album is definitely stronger for it. There is still a little bit of a on edge feeling to the record that makes it still not quite flow completely smoothly, but that is part of the charm of it as well. I really enjoy the styles he works with on this record and it comes off as a very nice low-key chill-pop kind of record with a very everyman kind of vocalist. So it still sounds a little rough, a little out there, but it is a greater exploration and it makes for a more intriguing and interesting journey.
