Hard-working and optimistically turned Eels

If you take it for granted that good rest is the key to good job, then, it turns out that American punk-rockers Eels plainly have rest while working. Many thought that they did everything planned for 2010 after releasing End Times. Yet that was not so. Eight months later, the bad dropped another studio album, ninth in their discography. The new effort by Eels was optimistically called Tomorrow Morning. Well, after listening to what they got on the CD, you will see that the songs are just as optimistic. It seemed that not long ago, Eels were into making quite depressive music, which was triggered by the events in the life and unrest in the heart of their leader Mark Everett. This brilliant musician and poet had gone through a number of truly severe ordeals. He buried his mother and sister, and had a conflict with his father so bitterly that it seemed to have no end. How could he be singing songs of happiness and joy after all of it? However, after putting all his pain and despair into End Times, Mark took found new topics and emotions for his lyrics reflected amazingly in Tomorrow Morning.

Good music and marvelous mood

Mark Everett himself said that Tomorrow Morning is a redemption album. And this is all that is new about the Eels fresh release. Because, musically, the band did manage to surprise, and, probably, did not even intend to. In the meantime, the mood of these songs (i.e. Mark’s mood) is bright and elated, which was so long awaited. The most assuring tracks here are Baby Loves Me, and Looking Up. These are also the only examples of those minor experimentations that the musicians afforded despite their complete satisfaction with their own sound. Baby Loves Me is a confident march into electropunk to the cheering machine drums, while Looking Up is an unexpected tribute to the gospel of the sixties with hand clapping and foot tromping with choral chants. One more track out of the ordinary, The Man, is prepared on the basis of simplistic, yet energetic, synth-pop of the eighties. Musically opposite are Spectacular Girl, a dynamic song with powerful drums, and I Like The Way This Is Going, a charming lyrical piece bringing you back to the band’s early works. In general, the Tomorrow Morning set is re-doing of the highlights from the group’s previous albums. And this one seems valuable only if you compare it to the recent efforts by Eels.

Tomorrow Morning: dawn of new life

The basic version of Tomorrow Morning has fourteen songs, while the limited edition offers four extra tracks, which do not break the general patterns. The new work by Eels should be seen as a product of a transition period in the history of the band, and, what is even more important, in the life of their keader Mark Everett. The key message concealed in this CD is not that the outfit started playing a different music, but that Mark took a different view at life. This must be implying that the music will basically remain the same, but enriched with new arrangements and slightly transformed vocals, which will bring about undiscovered and untold emotions. Free of revelations and novelties, Tomorrow Morning, to a great surprise, leaves a very sweet impression. Eels fans, despite having already heard similar material, will be glad to travel back into their favorite’s past, and they will be even gladder to see the changes in the band’s attitude that will lead inevitable and firmly to the changes in the music itself.

Alex Bartholomew
09.09.2010