Eels - The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett (Album Review)
Wednesday, 23 April 2014
Written by Matt Williams
If nothing else, ‘The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett’ is an apt title for Eels’ 11th studio outing. E has, since the earliest days of the band - ‘Beautiful Freak’ and ‘Electro-Shock Blues’ - been adept at delivering one-two punches, moving from mood to mood in a few quick steps.
As a companion piece to ‘Wonderful, Glorious’, album 11 performs a similar trick. Where that collection was playful and inventive in its own fuzzy way, its follow up is stark, beautiful and a little distant. There is a boatload of regret on display - relationships cut off too early, family ties severed and scarred over - but its delivery borders on the austere.
The album’s lead single, Mistakes Of My Youth, is indicative of the record’s wider aims. E is again looking back, at not only his missteps but also at the moments of clarity that accompanied some of them. “Don’t you see it?” he sings on Lockdown Hurricane, a standout early in the piece. “We’re goddamn fools.”
On Agatha Chang he’s in the mood to mourn his own romantic indifference - “I wouldn’t answer each time the phone rang. But I should have stayed with Agatha Chang.” - while Series Of Misunderstandings is the sort of brittle, jagged lullaby he’s used to fine effect previously.
“If I could do just one thing,” he almost mumbles. “Set the clock back many years ago. Teach that motherfucker who raised you how to treat you right.”
The sombre atmosphere is knitted together by a diverse range of instrumentation, even if the result is an album so tied to its themes that some inventive stylistic choices are lost in pursuit of them. E is a master songwriter - one who receives only some of the acclaim due to him - but here the highs and lows he sketches are too difficult to distinguish from one another. ‘The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett’ is another worthy addition to his body of work, but it never threatens to dethrone his classic works.
Eels Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sun June 15 2014 - OXFORD New Theatre
Mon June 16 2014 - MANCHESTER Bridgewater Hall
Tue June 17 2014 - GLASGOW Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Wed June 18 2014 - CAMBRIDGE Corn Exchange
Thu June 19 2014 - BEXHILL ON SEA De La Warr Pavilion
Mon June 30 2014 - LONDON Royal Albert Hall
Tue July 01 2014 - DUBLIN Olympia
Wed July 02 2014 - DUBLIN Dublin Olympia
Thu July 24 2014 - LONDON Barbican Hall
Fri July 25 2014 - BRISTOL Colston Hall Bristol
Sat July 26 2014 - GATESHEAD Sage Gateshead
Click here to compare & buy Eels Tickets at Stereoboard.com.
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
