Singles

Eels - My Timing is Off / Fresh Blood

Richard Wink 03/06/2009

Rating: 3/5

Taken from forthcoming album Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire, 'My Timing is Off' and 'Fresh Blood' carry the familiar Eels slackadaisical hallmarks. Though Mark Oliver Everett is too good of a songwriter to write a bad song, aspects of both of these songs seem to lack the usual Eels intensity. When a man is in such control of his craft is coasting it appears almost impossible to criticize his output.

If 'My Timing is Off' is a snapshot of desire then E must have the mojo of a Puritanical field mouse. The song is a plain little ballad, nicely floating along like a barge on a summer's day. It's Fresh Air music, cool and invisible. The melody sticks but the song fades.

'Fresh Blood' with its foreshadowing bass lick is more like it, the howling E romps like a red blooded werewolf, wildly rampaging through the red light district. It's a bit Beck like, you could even say it compares to the Fun Lovin' Criminals before the cocaine nosebleeds seeped out all their talent. Dark and disturbing, E reprises the Dog-Faced Boy from Souljacker, this is the song that will get you to listen to Hombre Lobo.

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