Eels - Tomorrow Morning

A trilogy is completed with this effort, which follows Mark's paranoia of Hombre Lobo and sorrowful (excellent) End Times. This one, as you can imagine from normal storyteller lineage, is more of a rebirth. A rejection of the burdens that were carried by the men in the previous albums.

Just like me, your enjoyment of these albums will come if you enjoy classicist pop and rock structure; done largely by one man with a studio and the appreciation for simple gestures. Also just like me, you'll rank each release based on which of your moods dominates your definition of "self". I'm not just wasting words, I think it's important to point out before I make a blanket statement like "Tomorrow Morning is not as good as End Times". Because that's not true in any sense other than I relate more to the wallowing, blurry-eyed sad sack on End Times more than this new guy with the praise in his heart over the girl with the bearded-man tattoo.

The music on Tomorrow Morning is still very good. Mostly shiny electronic lightness (as opposed to the fuzz of Hombre and acoustics of End Times.) But E's voice is just as gruff and sincere as ever. The highlight is the sexiest Eels song ever, "This Is Where It Gets Good". Romantic and builds to a classic crescendo and even sticks around past the foreplay straight into some of the good stuff.

On the other hand, there's a couple of sappy or silly inclusions. The Baptist gospel-tinged "Looking Up" - which is too obvious an expression of rebirth than is needed for this collection. Also, the closer, "Mysteries Of Life" is a prime example of why you want women to keep leaving good artists. Because when they're so satisfied that they're singing full choruses of "La la la"s- you want to smack them like a clown that is acting alone. But those are minorities. Still a great bookend and a great ending to a tragic/warm/inspiring story. (4 of 5 stars)