Rating:   55 Ratings     12345  

Eels Blinking Lights and Other Revelations Vagrant

      The album is tallied up as the eighth release in 13 years; the follow-up to 2003’s Shootenanny! (Dreamworks). The band, always ever-changing, is based upon Mark Oliver Everett, and his revolving door of friends and fellow bandmates.

      Disc one claims 17 tracks that are all under four minutes in length, and totals out to a 47.03 running time. There’s quite the orchestral lull and buzz present, partnered up with a soft acoustic guitar and a sympathetic piano. Musically, Eels come off like The Soundtrack Of Our Lives with a Modest Mouse whisper, but when the haggard vocals kick in, the story changes drastically, and the album then becomes something you have to endure, rather than enjoy.

      Dreary, low-tempo-ed and storytelling, Lights is an album of everyday life, and the questions and results that follow. Breakups, jobs, love and death are all covered with a solemn tone all-too fitting for an album focused on common forks in the road that everyone faces now and then.

      Key tracks on this disc are ‘Marie Floating Over The Backyard’, with its cathedral choir-like drones and an innocently tranquil piano to echo behind the dreamy tune. Then there’s ‘In The Yard, Behind The Church’, which gives in to the slide guitar, but appears as a poor man’s attempt at a Beck song.

      ‘Trouble With Dreams’, although misplaced with the harsh singing, ends with a xylophone and circus music sistered to The Beatles’ ‘For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite’. At times, the vocals are guttural, and yet, they tend to come across like a weary and worn Bob Dylan. And in ‘Mother Mary’, Eels attempt household experimentalisation with bottles crashing and breaking, and the creaks of a lone swing. Accordions and organs also give it a fond resemblance of The Bees, with their vintage inquisition.

      The second half of the release is just as melancholy, boasting 16 additional tracks for another 46.40 minutes of this low-key music. But before anything, ‘I’m Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn’t Break Your Heart’ is the most beautiful, heartfelt lovetorn track of the entire disc set. Coming to grips with the past, Everett sings about his personal changes, and how he’s come around. This track is the turning point of the album.

      ‘Sweet Li’l Thing’ is the runner up, as another love song that displays appreciating the joys of little things in relationships before its too late.

      Mixed into the set are also a few orchestral pieces, which are a nice break from such dismal lyrics and their lamenting musical progression.

      Overall, Eels fans could possibly divide on Lights. The upbeat tracks that are a part of the album seem spontaneous, and don’t follow the guidelines that were previously set by the band’s pace. If faster tunes are sought after, this album can be passed up without any feelings of guilt. It’s hopelessly remorseful, and presents a sense that it feels sorry for the everyman and his struggles. The record is only admirable in the way that a funeral procession is; a composed stillness combined with a reverence.

-Arie Musil 04/25/05