EELS – HOMBRE LOBO – 12 SONGS OF DESIRE

Tim Winton said last week, while accepting his latest and umpteenth well-deserved award, that often we have trouble escaping the 14 year old we once were. I suspect Mark Everett aka E would agree.  Despite being touted as a band, Eels are very much the embodiment of E. His lyrics, his music, his vision. And as the albums sub-title might suggest, this is the primal side of E. Setting the tone from the opening bars of Prizefighter, a rollicking bar room blues stomp, and peaking with the huge and visceral Jon Spenser-like attack of Tremendous Dynamite E expresses his primal desires on all fronts. But it is not only volume here, The Longing use a tenderness of tone and a minor-key waltz to great effect. And let us not forget the man knows how to pen a pop song, represented her by Beginners Luck and Lilac Breeze, both sure to ring from radio stations (and or Shrek soundtracks) everywhere. Mark Everett remains his own man, in touch with his own 14 year old, and a poet/songwriter of the highest order.

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