Album Review: Eels: End Times

2.5/5 Barrels of ice-cream needed to listen to End Times.

By Captain Pownzor
Staff Blogger
I have been a long time listener of the eels and sort of fell off the wagon on Hombre Lobo. I decided to give End times a chance though and I am glad I did.
Its hit and miss, But the songs that hit are wonderful. For anyone who has listened to an eels album before its sort of an eclectic racket, with a brash honesty and a bit of zany lyric styling.
When you first put it on do not be fooled by the opener, this is not a bright eyes want to be folks. Eels seem to vary between a crushing sadness and a happy go lucky “fuck you world” , on End times but the album is generally a saddie overall.
The story of end times seems like someone who is just going through a breakup, eventually reaching back to a stage of contentment. The transition is like a story book if you listen to it in sequence, you see the story of the split, and the hopelessness, followed by some acceptance.
Songs like Gone man and unhinged bring me back to the happier rock days of the eels with tracks like Saturday morning and Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues.
A line in the dirt tells a story like only E can. It’s a touching piano ballad about the story of the couple’s squabble, but its told with such a lonely and honest quality.
End times seems like just a spewing of observational thought, I laughed a bit hearing it for the first time, as it just seemed like he was spewing random thoughts, but upon listening a bit more you discover the song is just about pure rock bottom.
Towards the end of the album, we have three tracks that are very much like the track Daisy through concrete from the album, Daisies of the galaxy.
End times is a decent album and I think it would be some good jams for your next break up, but I just cant see recommending it as a whole to non Eels fans. If you like the style go for it, if you don’t find yourself liking any of the earlier stuff by the Eels don’t even bother.
You can hear some of the tracks from End times on Myspace.