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Album Details

• Artist: Eels
• Album: End Times
• Label: Vagrant
• Year of Release: 2010
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: tosnob on 2010-02-06

Mark Everett has done a lot over the course of his musical career. As the mastermind behind Eels, he's had trippy records, rocking records, playful records, and recently more and more introspective records. So where does the forthcoming eighth studio album End Times (out January 19th) fall along the spectrum?

The album is actually a little of everything.

End Times features some of E's most engaging and reflective tunes in quite some time. The painful "In My Younger Days", emotionally wrenching "A Line In the Dirt", and "Nowadays" (featuring a Neil Young-esque harmonica intro) are all simply arranged, but ride the strength of great lyrics and intimate vocal performances to grab the listener.

More importantly, Everett has rediscovered his knack for writing peppy tunes. "Gone Man" boasts a delightful jive guitar while "Mansion of Loz Feliz" is an equally catchy strummer. "Paradise Blues" is a solid blues rocker. The up tempo "Unhinged" is propelled forward at a pace that makes you feel Everett is barely keeping control.

That's not to say that End Times doesn't have its share of seemingly interminable moments. "I Need a Mother" is a dull piano-backed track. The closer "On My Feet" is listless at best. The title track is downright coma-inducing.

There are still too many run-of-the-mill tracks that weigh down End Times, but it is overall a satisfying album and a much stronger one than we've heard from Eels in years.

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