EELS

Since 1996's BEAUTIFUL FREAK, Mark Oliver Everett used his band, Eels, as a mouthpiece for his inspirationally morose worldview. Recorded over a period of seven years in Everett's basement, the 33 tracks of 2005's BLINKING LIGHTS AND OTHER REVELATIONS see the singer/songwriter backing off from the rockier sounds of 2003's SHOOTENANNY! to meditate on the significance of family, aging, and death. The results are often breathtaking, a warm blanket of a song cycle whose tracks are the more mature, resolute descendents of the tunes on 1998's ELECTRO-SHOCK BLUES. While the majority of this material features a full band, many of the most triumphant and affecting tracks were recorded with only Everett's expressive vocals and piano ("If You See Natalie," "Last Time We Spoke," "Dust of Ages"). "To Lick Your Boots," a defense for a slandered friend, was co-written by and features R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, while ex-Lovin' Spoonful frontman John Sebastian lends a hand to the pastoral instrumental "Dusk: A Peach in the Orchard." "Going Fetal," which imagines an anxiety-based dance craze, utilizes a Tom Waits vocal sample. This double-disc set reinforces Everett's status as one of America's finest underrated pop songwriters, demonstrating once again that his anguish is to our benefit.

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