REVIEW: EELS - EELS TIME!

4/5

Slippery When Wet 

In the same New Music Friday that sees Bon Jovi celebrate 40 years 'Forever' and The Game releasing an EP called 'Time', the Eels are back with 'EELS TIME!' And what a time, just a week before this writer is literally heading to 'Susan's House' for a surprise. Although, I've already said too much. No matter. Nobody reads these reviews anyway. New 'Novocaine For The Soul' is here, before I splutter out even more. Mark Oliver Everett may look like Boris The Animal from 'Men In Black III' in those goggles, and with that beard, but it's just E, actually. That must be his brother. That must be his brother...right?!

Like Jon Bon Jovi recovering from vocal surgery, Mark Oliver is back with a vengeance after recovering from life-saving heart surgery. Cherishing 'Time' like the Eels on the lead single that tells us, "Time, it's all about time now/Tick-tock I rock, but then I look at the clock/Knock-knock, who's there?/Well, I don't dare open the door/Time, there was nothing but time then/Click-clack riding down the tracks/Never worried about coming back/Any place looked good to me/Why not stop and see what's there?/Time, there isn't much time now/What's the fear, well, I like it here/With the ones I love so near/Maybe there's just some way/Dear God, I can stay." And it's important that we included every word for you to read, just like taken as read, you should value every moment of time in this rich life. Just like E. All across 12 tracks for over a half-hour of life-affirming power from the 'Beautiful Freak's' of 1996 with their fifteenth album (Bon Jovi just released their sweet sixteenth in 40 years), and their first since 2022's 'Extreme Witchcraft' from the trip-hop, alternative indie rockers.

E Records' classic concept, recorded in-person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, or 'The Deconstruction' of 2019, saw studio sessions in Los Feliz and Angeles, and Dublin, Ireland. The eclectic Eels, plug in guest features from Koool G Murder ('I Can't Believe It's True'), The Chet ('We Won't See Her Like Again'), Tyson Ritter ('Goldy', 'Haunted Hero', 'If I'm Gonna Go Anywhere', 'Lay With The Lambs', 'On The Bridge'), and Sean Coleman (the 'Let's Be Lucky' leaving ode, also with Ritter) to spark. But it's when they get real alone and sombre that they shock you to the core. Even though the grief of lost lives and unrequited love has been their calling card like a song in their back pocket for years. Yet it's the yearning and learning lyrics of "Love, what else is there, but love?/What else is there?/Oh, hey/I can let it fester/Just grand gestures/And kind of slow", on the standout 'If I'm Gonna Go Anywhere' that really resonate with hope like nothing else in this day and age does or will.

Barefoot kicking it, back on stage in a purple reign with flowers, this is E and the Eels electric time again like when 'Susan's House' visited the billboards on the regular. A secret, 'Sweet Smile' like Semisonic, with no closing time, will sing to you in your sleep, with words of wonder from the fellow 90s nostalgia darlings like, "Sweet smile is a resting face/She's alright, whatever the case/Walking carefree down the street/Taking steps, to her own beat." Sean Coleman also produced the lament of 'And Your Run' which takes love and hearts on the rocks with a twist, to new lime sharp extremes. "My dear, I feel so torn up inside/There's something I really need/But when I tell you how I really feel/You just look at me/And you run/Some days I have to ask myself why/I wanna put myself through/And other days, I answer myself/"'Cause I don't have any choice"/And I run/And I run," Oliver marks in his songbook with a sober heart. But it doesn't all depart. With hope anew like the fellow slippery when wet rockers, the Eels charge up life's dice on the swansong of 'Let's Be Lucky' (that's paused on my phone's Spotify for that daily inspiration) that promises...no vows more. "Stomp and cheer/Well, I'm still here/And you're not gonna see me/Throw away a day like this." Let's be lucky indeed. Because, that's life. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Time', 'If I'm Gonna Go Anywhere', 'Let's Be Lucky'.