Mark Oliver Everett isn’t much of a singer and his lyrics tend toward the maudlin but the man called E has had an oddly rewarding career: he's one of the only authors of a '90s alt-radio hit that still gets reviewed in mainstream publications. People feel very strongly about at least two of his records: 2005's ambitious spiritual undertaking Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, and 1998's elegiac Electro-Shock Blues. His music is oddly comforting — lots of tried-and-true chord progressions, attic-level sonics with the occasional broken instrument to match. Even some of his goofiest numbers are good for a bonbon, like the groovy “Saturday Morning” and the porch-whistled “I Like Birds.” And for a former one-hit wonder he’s surprisingly bankable: within the last five years alone he's issued a double-disc, a live album (with strings!), a best-of, a(nother) b-sides disc and last year a plain ol' new record, Hombre Lobo, which paid homage to Cuban cigars on the cover and made for a relatively streamlined listen on the inside.

End Times is another Eels album, one even more attic-addicted, with mostly solo acoustics done lo-fi on 4-track, quite slow and lacking an obvious entry point like the last album's… read more »