SOUND BITES

  Very few bands/artists from the alternative era have enjoyed the kind of prolific, creatively free reign as Eels. Since making their buzz-bin debut with minor hit single Novocaine for the Soul just over 25 years ago, Eels have cranked out more music than just about any of their '90s peers I can think of; that Extreme Witchcraft is their fourteenth album is even more impressive considering there was a four year hiatus in there as well (not as impressive when considering King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard exist, but still). Perhaps most dubiously impressive is that this long and full career has happened almost overwhelmingly under the radar; like most artists who came about in the post-grunge alt-rock frenzy of the mis-to-late '90s, Eels' best-remembered projects are the earliest. Second album, 1998's Electro-Shock Blues , is widely praised as their emotional and artistic peak, and it's hard to argue that it's as close to a classic album as Eels have produce...

After a particularly prolific run that saw the release of five albums in five years, Mark Oliver Everett considered retiring from music, citing burnout. Nonetheless, after experiencing a rapid succession of life events (marriage, divorce, the birth of his son), songs inevitably started to surface and, over the course of four years, the songs that ended up becoming The Deconstruction took shape. Considering the subdued, personal tone of previous album The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett , it actually feels like it's been an extra year since we got the last true Eels record (2013's Wonderful, Glorious ) and, taken as the follow-up to that album, The Deconstruction reveals that not much has changed in the last five years. Everett's knacks for slacker indie folk and darkly orchestral rock remain intact on lead singles The Deconstruction and Bone Dry , respectively. Elsewhere, we're treated to a host of familiar Eels sounds and styles; there aren't reall...

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 fr...

They can't all be shining examples. Collected below are ten songs/artists that I hesitated to nominate for the Year in Rock awards, but have redeeming qualities to them nonetheless. Some impressed me initially only to have interest wane quickly; others I expected better from. These are Year in Rock 2013's Honourable Mentions:

With their tenth studio album Wonderful, Glorious hitting shelves next week, Eels have offered up the stream below. Carrying over the positive attitude from previous album Tomorrow Morning and marrying it with louder, groovier music, Wonderful, Glorious is a more focused effort than the trilogy of albums released around a loose theme in 2009 and 2010. The album as a whole pays off as a result, not a scattershot affair but a well rounded, overall solid album that's probably their most satisfying in a decade. Wonderful, Glorious is out February 5 on E Works/Vagrant.

Usually, this is the time of year when the reflections on the twelve months that were are complete and this place becomes a ghost town for at least a couple weeks because there's nothing interesting being released until April. In fact, if you noticed during my chronologically ordered nominees rollout, you'll find that only 7/50 came out in the first quarter of the year (with five of those being in March, and none in January). Maybe the labels are panicking to get their properties out there before no one cares about albums anymore, maybe my music addiction's spiraled too far out of control. Whatever the case, the first three months of 2013 are logjammed with potentially and guaranteed awesome albums alike. So, we took a look back, and will remember 2012 fondly; now let's dive into 2013 and start devouring more tasty riffs! After the jump are my 15 most anticipated releases coming in the early part of 2013: