Four years ago, Eels frontman and songwriter E penned a collection of intimate, often gentle, and very revealing songs called Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. It reflected songs of personal experience and the human spirit. But E, aka Mark Oliver Everett, never seems to look at things the same way twice. In many ways, Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire is the mirror image of that album. And, as Everett himself claims, this one is more about animal instinct. That's fair enough as far as it goes, but this recording, while reflecting a more primal side of human experience as it engages the primacy of desire, actually recalls -- and feels like an extension of -- the song "Dog Faced Boy" from Souljacker. That kid, caught in his loneliness because of his difference, seems to be speaking -- albeit as a grownup -- through many of the songs here. His difference is both his gift and his curse and he understands both sides. He's finding his loneliness to be both the bane of his existence and his strength to survive and succeed in finding love no matter what. His protagonist, through thoroughly human, is still regarded as an animal because of his hirsute appearance, and he deals with that in these 12 songs with tenderness, rage, and reckless abandon. The sound of the album seems divided in two, the brazenly rockist set betraying the side of animal instinct in all its guises, from anger to wanton lust, desperation, and swaggering self-confidence, with E using resolute raw, distorted roots rock ("Prizefighter"); piledriving, careening garage rock ("Liliac Breeze"and "What's a Fella Gotta Do"); howling raucous blues ("Tremendous Dynamite"); and the brilliant boasting pomposity portrayed by distorted pop/rock ("Beginner's Luck").
Then there's the other half, meant to portray the very human face of the ache that desire causes. These nakedly sensitive, embarrassingly frank ballads literally pour tenderness and reveal the other side of "Prizefighter." They begin with the self-explanatory wish revealed in the simple four-chord "That Look You Give That Guy" and continue with the lilting "In My Dreams"; the somber, minor-key waltz called "The Longing"; the midtempo pop disappointment that is "My Timing Is Off" (perhaps the finest song on the record); and the resolute truth and acceptance in "Ordinary Man," where he speaks to the absent object of his desire and gives her the benefit of the doubt that on "Another warm day, in the city of cold hearts.../You, you're not like that.../And you seem like you could appreciate the fact/That I'm no ordinary man." Ultimately there's the thread of hope, because the instinct of desire brings it to us in so many different ways, and E understands this better than most. This is a beautifully crafted, stripped-down recording, showcasing once more that E uses searing honesty and a canny sense of pop, rock, blues, and everything else to chronicle his own strange path through life and its labyrinth -- he combines them all with an endearing craziness that most of us feel every day, but dare not speak of. He may be a loopy poet and songwriter, but here, as is his norm, he's spot-on and a joy to listen to.
There's a temptation to resist this material for what it isn't--namely another set of gorgeous downer dirges that he is so skilled at writing and performing. But Hombre Lobo is perhaps Everett's most consistent "character work" to date.
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ALBUM REVIEW: Eels - Hombre Lobo (E Works)words: Jamie Miltonoriginally scribed for gigwise.comBloodthirsty like a werewolf, desire hasn’t been a topic that Mark Oliver Everett has shied away from over his fifteen years as an alternative-rock pioneer. Although his songwriting has always remained exposed and generous in honesty, never has a man sounded so out [...]
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A video for the new Eels track 'Fresh Blood' (taken from his upcoming record 'Hombre Lobo') has been released on 'Stereogum' and we thought it was good enough to share with you lovely folk. The track is a typically dark, funky, nocturnal, howling track that perfectly replicates everything you should expect from a song called Fresh Blood and taken from an album that means Werewolf in Spanish.
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Mark Oliver Everett takes his latest album title quite literally, unleashing predatory howls over distortion-ridden stompers like Fresh Blood, only to awake as an innocent mensch. The gentler E distances himself from his lycanthropic alter ego, searching for Ms. Right backed by a familiar arsenal of winsome melodies and elegant string arrangements. The album doesn't declare an outright winner i...
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EELS - In My Dreams - from HOMBRE LOBOHere's the new video for Eels' "In My Dreams", off of the new album Hombre Lobo (Wolf Man). The video captures the feeling of a strange dream pretty well.Related: Eels - Fresh BloodPigeons and Planes
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ALBUM REVIEW: Eels - Hombre Lobo (E Works)words: Jamie Miltonoriginally scribed for gigwise.comBloodthirsty like a werewolf, desire hasn’t been a topic that Mark Oliver Everett has shied away from over his fifteen years as an alternative-rock pioneer. Although his songwriting has always remained exposed and generous in honesty, never has a man sounded so out [...]
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Tomorrow morning (7/3), MySpace will premiere the new video for the EELS' "In My Dreams," from the new Hombre Lobo album, which was also performed on The Late Show with David Letterman June 17th (watch the video below). "In My Dreams" is also the song of the day over at ...
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“Prizefighter” off the Eels new Hombre Lobo is a bluesy and foot-stomping number sung with a raspy tenacity by the lovably eccentric “E.”
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Ugh! Myspace. Don’t really care for it much these days. Sluggish and buggy. But…it is the EELS and I love me some EELS.Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire drops next Tuesday June the 2nd, but you can listen to the album in it’s entirety @ EELS Myspace. Just click the pic to get you where [...]
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There's a temptation to resist this material for what it isn't--namely another set of gorgeous downer dirges that he is so skilled at writing and performing. But Hombre Lobo is perhaps Everett's most consistent "character work" to date.
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MUSIC NEWS - The new EELS studio record in four years “Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire”, their first since Blinking Lights and Other Revelations in April 2005, is now streaming in its entirety on the EELS’ Myspace page. The album has a June 2, 2009 release scheduled (via Vagrant Records). The American garage rockers, The EELS, were formed by singer/songwriter Mark Oli
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Eels - Fresh Blood (Video)Myspace
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From the album, Hombre Lobo.Hombre Lobo's cover art references Cohiba brand cigars. They were originally produced only for the former president of Cuba, Fidel Castro. Prominent product placement of Mark Oliver Everett(vocals) book, "Things the Grandchildren Should Know" leads of the video as we watch his child variant prepare for bed. The rest of the clip features a long search for a frog that ...
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A video for the new Eels track 'Fresh Blood' (taken from his upcoming record 'Hombre Lobo') has been released on 'Stereogum' and we thought it was good enough to share with you lovely folk. The track is a typically dark, funky, nocturnal, howling track that perfectly replicates everything you should expect from a song called Fresh Blood and taken from an album that means Werewolf in Spanish.
More >
The first full Eels album in four years, Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire, is now streaming in full on the band's myspace page. It is officially released tomorrow by Vagrant Records.
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On June 2nd, Mark Oliver Everett, aka E, aka Eels, will be releasing Hombre Lobo: An American Werewolf. The album moves away from introspective indie rock and is a concept piece about animal instinct and desire. He also has a phenomenal beard.Here are two videos of songs from Hombre Lobo.Video: Eels - Fresh BloodVideo: Eels [...]
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Prizefighter |
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| 2 That Look You Give That Guy |
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| 3 Lilac Breeze |
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| 4 In My Dreams |
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| 5 Tremendous Dynamite |
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| 6 The Longing |
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| 7 Fresh Blood |
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| 8 What's a Fella Gotta Do |
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| 9 My Timing Is Off |
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| 10 All the Beautiful Things |
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| 11 Beginner's Luck |
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| 12 Ordinary Man |
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| 13 [CD-Rom Track] |
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Click to purchase…
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 "Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire")
