Eels - A Line In the Dirt

Cacking Hell! Another Eels album already? I'm not complaining, just wary of E wandering into Frank Black/Black Francis territory. Thankfully, new album End Times at least distinguishes itself thematically from 2009's Hombre Lobo. But that's another story for the Guardian and NME. I want to talk about the first single taken from the album.



The record is officially released in the UK on 1st March, but eager beavers can snap it up at the Eels' online store right now. Artwork comes from Adrian Tomine, who has wonderfully rendered Eels main man E to match the stylings of the End Times artwork. The whole package is a pretty nice deal since this thing actually has a spine like an LP, and an inner sleeve; a really pleasing if somewhat unnecessary touch.

'A Line in the Dirt' continues the bizarre Eels trend started on 'My Timing is Off' of producing a video and heavily promoting a song before doing a total u-turn and sticking it on the B-side and using some other album track as the A-side.

'Little Bird' has been around on the Eels' website for a few months now as a free download and even made AOL Music's list of the best 25 songs of 2009 (a truly wild and unfathomable list!) Here's the video:





The song is immediately recognisable as classic Eels; a quiet, pretty reflection on lost love, hinging on a husky "God damn" from the world-weary E. Although familiar, the song has enough sincerity to make it stand aside from other similarly beautiful-but-broken moments from Blinking Lights and Other Revelations and older favourites like 'It's a Motherfucker'.

Eels have also produced videos for End Times tracks 'In My Younger Days' and 'Unhinged', so it's not clear at all as to why 'A Line in the Dirt' has leap-frogged all these songs to end up as the first (and likely only) single from the album. Maybe simply because it's just that good?

The track opens with the same piano chords as 'Manchester Girl'; an early Eels song that I would place in my top five all-time favourite Eels tracks, and treads the same maudlin path, although going on to encompass a restrained, subtly uplifting brass section. The choruses are delicate - E adopting the high, slightly strained vocal approach he uses to such fractured effect (think 'Selective Memory' from Daisies of the Galaxy).

This is great single with two top-notch tracks, presented here as the cream of End Times in a thoughtfully-produced package. Not much to offer the listener who already owns the album, but still worth getting hold of in my opinion if you are a fan of this man's work. There is just something so much better about listening to these songs on an old beat-up record player than on a shiny new iPod. Still, if you must you can get 'Little Bird' as a free download here.

Eels - My Timing is Off/Fresh Blood

Something is afoot. Something smells funny about the new Eels single.

Basically, this was initially released through iTunes to promote the upcoming Hombre Lobo album, Eels first full studio album since 2005. The tracks were 'Fresh Blood' and 'Devil's Dog'. Whilst I was glad to hear that Britain was getting an actual 7" release, I've been left scratching my head as to why someone has decided to make this a double A-side with 'My Timing is Off', effectively demoting 'Fresh Blood' to the B-side. Both of these tracks are on Hombre Lobo, whereas 'Devil's Dog' is not and now remains solely available as a download.

This record is quite telling of the current music sales market. The CD single has become a redundant format, losing out to the digital download. The thing the CD always had going for it was convenience and now that a more convenient format has come along the CD is going the way of the 8-track! For a tangible release the 7" has become the format of choice, having an inherent value missing from the CD; it's a desirable item for fans and adds a sort of underground kudos to a band's reputation. So, I reckon it could be that it was felt that fans would just buy this record whatever the track listing and that by leaving off 'Devil's Dog' they could entice fans to purchase both 7" and digital download. Sneaky. I'm not quite sure who this mysterious 'they' is, though. Surely not E.

Perhaps it was just felt that 'My Timing is Off' was a better lead single for the UK market? 'Fresh Blood' is pretty raucous and perhaps not fit for our frail British hearts and milky livers. The track (and video) find Eels leader E in the guise of 'Hombre Lobo'; the 'Dog-Faced Boy' all grown up and living a predatory existence on the fringes of a society that has snubbed him. As E says, "I wrote a song a few years ago called 'I Want to Protect You' that was about wanting to protect someone from the wolves. Now I am the wolf."

The song is in the vein of the hard-rocking Souljacker album - 'Teenage Witch' particularly springs to mind, although it is very different to anything already in the Eels repertoire. 'Fresh Blood' builds on the grimy, slow grumble of the bass to a hypnotic chorus full of intrigue courtesy of some creepy electronics and shuddering guitar work. Twinned with the video this a very noir affair.



The artwork for the record is a photo that looks like it may have been taken when they were shooting the video. E's beard is even bigger than in the Souljacker days and that's saying something!





'My Timing is Off' is a more typical Eels song: wistful and tender, but with an upbeat tempo. It's the kind of song you'd find on Daisies of the Galaxy, although it lacks the fragility of a lot of the material on that album and actually comes off more like a poor man's 'Numbered Days' or 'Somebody Loves You' from Shootenanny: both fine songs, but not that memorable. It's a nice enough song while it's on, but does little to differentiate itself from a dozen other similar Eels songs.

Anyway, 'Fresh Blood' has certainly done enough to whet my appetite for the new album. Hombre Lobo is out on Monday 1st June and the band's official website does a great job of keeping everyone up to date with developments, reviews and promotional appearances the band are doing. But don't go trying to follow them on Twitter:

3/25/2009- EELS TWEET:
Follow EELS on Twitter HERE.

4/24/2009- NO TWITTER FOR EELS:
EELS have abandoned their Twitter account. "The only tweeting I wanna hear is in my backyard. This shit is not for us," says EELS leader E.

I'm surprised they lasted that long on there, to be honest.