End Times: Eels (**1/2) <Vagrant> Genre: Alternative Rock Here’s a shocker, more sad songs from Eels! I took a bit of a double take when I saw that Eels was releasing a new record this year, just about six months after the release of Hombre Lobo.  This is from the same band that took four years to follow up their 2005 double album.  I mean, don’t get me wrong: I fully welcome new songs by Eels.  But, eh… winter might be the wrong time for an Eels album to be released.  Their music is so dreary, melancholy, grey, and well… sad.  I’m all for dark listens to provide a cool backdrop for a winter day.  But to me, all this record has done for is make me really really depressed. So if you’re in for a massively depressing listen, End Times is for you. Normally, I love really sad songs, and just about nobody around does it as honestly as the Eels’ frontman, E.  I thought Hombre Lobo was a fantastic listen last year, but End Times feels kind of stale.  This time around, E laments about subjects of divorce and aging, as duly noted by the depressing old man on the cover, as well as song titles like “Gone Man,” “High And Lonesome,” “Unhinged,” and of course, the title track.  Most of the songs have some pretty good ideas, all the while E’s voice cracking under the weight of his own sadness.  I want to get into it all, but none of the songs take off for me like they did on the Eels’ last release.  I feel like this release was kind of…  I don’t know, shrugged out.  It’s just more of the same melancholy Eels, which is fine, I guess.  It probably should have been an EP, though. Key Tracks: “A Line In The Dirt,” “On My Feet” For Fans Of: Beck, Tom Waits, Cake, Leonard Cohen

End Times: Eels (**1/2) <Vagrant>

Genre: Alternative Rock

Here’s a shocker, more sad songs from Eels!

I took a bit of a double take when I saw that Eels was releasing a new record this year, just about six months after the release of Hombre Lobo.  This is from the same band that took four years to follow up their 2005 double album.  I mean, don’t get me wrong: I fully welcome new songs by Eels.  But, eh… winter might be the wrong time for an Eels album to be released.  Their music is so dreary, melancholy, grey, and well… sad.  I’m all for dark listens to provide a cool backdrop for a winter day.  But to me, all this record has done for is make me really really depressed.

So if you’re in for a massively depressing listen, End Times is for you.

Normally, I love really sad songs, and just about nobody around does it as honestly as the Eels’ frontman, E.  I thought Hombre Lobo was a fantastic listen last year, but End Times feels kind of stale.  This time around, E laments about subjects of divorce and aging, as duly noted by the depressing old man on the cover, as well as song titles like “Gone Man,” “High And Lonesome,” “Unhinged,” and of course, the title track.  Most of the songs have some pretty good ideas, all the while E’s voice cracking under the weight of his own sadness.  I want to get into it all, but none of the songs take off for me like they did on the Eels’ last release.  I feel like this release was kind of…  I don’t know, shrugged out.  It’s just more of the same melancholy Eels, which is fine, I guess.  It probably should have been an EP, though.

Key Tracks: “A Line In The Dirt,” “On My Feet”

For Fans Of: Beck, Tom Waits, Cake, Leonard Cohen