EELS – TOMORROW MORNING

…and then things got strange. Well I’m not sure one could ever accuse E aka Mark Everett aka Eels of ever being conventional; so we should have expected the unexpected. Releasing his third album in just over a year, E has cast aside the rock aesthetic that dominated the previous two releases (the electric Hombre Lobo and the acoustic End Times) for an electronic, textured and programed sound on Tomorrow Morning. If these are to be viewed as a trilogy, then the incredibly intimate tone is tempered a little here. Following on from hunger and desire, through the painful breakdown of a relationship, Tomorrow Morning is predictably the optimism (Looking Up) of coming out the other side of these things; a little bruised and battered, but a touch wiser and intact nevertheless. After the initial shock of Eels’ changed musical base, Tomorrow Morning quickly reveals the same quirky humour and E’s ability to write a great pop song in any form: “My baby loves me / And she’s smarter than you / My baby loves me / Unlikely but true.” This Is Where It Gets Good keeps the positive attitude going, even if E has borrowed heavily from Peter Gabriel’s book of electronic tribal beats and trippy textures. By the time he has finished pondering on Mystery of Life E has produced not the best, but the most suprising albums of his career.

*** 1/2