Albums

Eels - Tomorrow Morning

Tom Walton 24/08/2010

Rating: 3/5

It's getting hard to keep up with Mark Everett.
With the second album of this year alone and the third in a little over 12 months, Eels are back with the completion of a trilogy, the part E calls “the redemption.”

Last June Hombre Lobomarked the return for the band after a four year absence of studio albums and was followed up in January with the sombre affair of End Times. Now the band that formed 14 years ago are offering 'Tomorrow Morning' and they've continued with the trademark Eels sound though still delivering the delightfully different twists that separate almost every one of their previous eight long players.

After an ambient beginning of instrumental 'In Gratitude For This Magnificent Day' the trend continues with 'I'm A Hummingbird', refusing to conform to any song writing rules and straying into its own rhythmless, orchestral world while Everett labours: “To be here now, I'm a humming bird, floating tree to tree, I'm a humming bird beautiful and free.”

'In The Morning' keeps the tempo slow as E becomes optimistic: “It's anybody's day, it could go any way, why wouldn't you want to make the most of it?” and he begins to get over the messy divorce that dominated 'End Times' with looped drum machines in 'Spectacular Girl': “Not a desire and not a need, some things just happen because they have to be,” before: “I'm a man on a mission and I'm all about her.”

It's good to see E's perpetually low mood lift and although Tomorrow Morning isn't actually spectacular, it isn't something that comes on its own either. If haven't heard the first two parts of this engaging trilogy it's like watching the last episode in a series to which you've had no prior commitments, you just won't get as much out of it. The craft here is what's remarkable and the balance of the album is nigh-on perfect, just not grandeur.

With the conclusion to the latest part of Everett's life story done and dusted and a world tour currently under way, the prolific songsmith might be thinking of taking a break; beard, board shorts, surf and bit-bat.

Not likely.