IN REVIEW: Eels - "The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett"

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Over the course of nearly twenty years and eleven studio albums, Eels (aka Mark Oliver Everett) has forged a fairly comfortable career; he's done this by crafting interesting songs that inhabit varying moods and feelings, and while playing a wide array of characters. His songs have told the stories of an impressive cast; loveable losers, dog faced boys, grieving sons, bus stop boxers and star-crossed lovers have all gotten their odes, and there's a little bit of Everett in all of them.

With Eels' eleventh album, the stories cut closer to home; Everett puts his name on this one, and the songs play out more as personal reflections than semi-fictionalized embellishments. This is also a bit of a retreat from the bright-side leanings of the last couple of Eels records. Whereas Wonderful, Glorious went for blasts of sunshine, this album returns to the bleaker sounds that paint most of Everett's discography.

Pleasingly, as bleak as it is, Cautionary Tales does benefit from some of Everett's sharpest pop songcraft in recent memory, and there's enough variation in tempo to prevent it from being an outright snoozer; Where I'm From gives the A-side's latter half some welcome acceleration, a mellow country shuffler that feels like a break in the clouds. And the album's penultimate track, lead single Mistakes of My Youth, uses lush orchestration and some hopeful strumming to pull the song up from the muck and make it the album's undisputed highlight.

The thing that's arguably dogged Eels' discography all along is that, as many great songs as Everett has given us over the years, he's yet to give us a truly great album. That hasn't changed here; aside from a handful of really well-written tracks, much of the album just kind of floats by unassumingly. Still, at least it's more focused than most of his previous records, even if it's focused away from most of the quirks and outbursts that he's revered for. The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett isn't for everybody, but if you're in the mood for something quiet and reflective, this one will scratch your itch. For the rest of us, there are a few more gems to add to our Eels best-of playlist.

April 22, 2014 • E Works
Highlights Lockdown Hurricane • Where I'm From • Mistakes of My Youth

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