While some heartbroken artists find solace through penning the odd break up song here and there, Eels frontman Mark Everett has decided to rake through the whole emotional mess of his recent divorce with an entire album, End Times.
The only problem with an album devoted to a marriage break up is that it’s kind of, well, depressing. Like the drunken ramblings of a barfly, whose ex-wife never understood him, End Times allows Everett to really wallow in his marriage break up and also get downright depressed about pretty much everything in the world.
Just read the blurb on the band’s website and you get some idea of the downbeat marketing behind End Times.
“End Times is the sound of an artist growing older in uncertain times. An artist who has lost his great love while struggling with his faith in an increasingly hostile world teetering on self-destruction…. it’s a “divorce album” with a modern twist: the artist equates his personal loss with the world he lives in losing its integrity.” Hardly, giving it the big sell, is it?
But while End Times does tend to descend into self-obsessed waffle in places, there are still some great tracks. Even though it is among the weakest Eels albums, and comes in marked contrast in tone to last year’s upbeat album about desire Hombre Lobo, End Times cannot help but showcase Everett’s undoubted talent.
Among the top tracks on End Times is ‘Little Bird’, a simple, largely just guitar track that is heartfelt and stays just about on the right side of melancholy. It’s already become one of my favourite ever Eels songs.
Another is ‘Line in the Dirt’, a piano number which opens up with horns towards the end and recounts Everett forcing to piss in the ground in his garden because his wife has locked herself in the bathroom. I would have thought that someone as successful as Everett would have more than one toilet in his house, but I’ll concede that some artistic licence is needed at times.
The up tempo ‘Gone Man’ is another highlight. There is also a nice end to the album with, ‘On My Feet’, which offers hope of better times to come. ‘It’s not easy standing on my feet these days, But you know I’m pretty sure That I’ve been through worse, And I’m sure I can take the hit,”sings Everett on the track.
Less good are the rather lame blues number ‘Paradise Blues’ and ‘End Times’, where the lovesick barfly in Everett attempts to make moaning and whinging an Olympic event.
Everett, who recorded the album on his own, mostly on a four-track in his home studio, acknowledges that End Times will not appeal to everyone. He says on the band’s website, “This will be some people’s favourite Eels album and some people’s least favorite Eels album, I’m prepared for that.”
7/10
by Joe Lepper, Jan 2010
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