Tuesday, May 3, 2005

New Eels album released last week

Blinking Lights and Other RevelationsOn April 26, the Eels released a double-disc new album, "Blinking Lights and Other Revelations". You might know the Eels from their first near-hit of 1996 called "Novocaine for the Soul" or maybe from their appearances on the Shrek soundtracks ("My Beloved Monster" and "I Need Some Sleep"). They started out with a promising debut almost 10 years ago, but then singer/song-writer "E" was hit with the suicide of a sister and death of a parent. So their next release "Electro-Shock Blues", was greatly influenced by these personal events and, while being an excellent album, was much darker and personal. The marketing push from the record label seemed to completely disappear.

In the meantime, the Eels have consistently produced fantastic Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Indie Rock albums to great critical acclaim. If not for the strong language peppered throughout, these discs would be spun often at my house. I highly recommend you checking these guys out, especially their first album.

Back to the new release... it seems to be a dark re-visiting of a diary of dealing with the past seven years since the deaths of "E"'s family members. So, I have to admit... I'd like to hear this first before I buy or recommend it. But at least now you know. If you hear this one, let me know what you think.

6 comments:

  1. Jon, love the new site. This is a great idea. Thanks to you and all your collaborators on getting this thing up. I'll be back often!

    I heard about the Eels when their first album came out, but never got around to checking them out. Just started listening to the new album. I'm only five songs into it(out of 33 songs on two discs), but right now I'm thinking Beck meets Bruce Springstein at 3am, with a little Bob Dylan thrown in for good measure (but mostly just the Beck). I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of this album, as well as checking out their other stuff.

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  2. Hey I'm going to see eels this Wednesday! Can't wait! Thanks for the info.

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  3. What?!? Cool! I wanna go! I just got the new album, but haven't listened to it yet. Maybe tonight after '24', I can give it a spin.

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  4. Yeah, I'll be sure to give a report on how the concert went later this week!

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  5. Okay, this is an amazing album. This is one where you need to tune out the world for 93 minutes and sit down and read the lyrics as you go along the journey. Fantastic! Very personal and intimate and captivating.

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  6. Went looking for the album last week after having seen a review in EW. Now I just have to find it.

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