New Alphabet by Eels

As the new album nears (5th February) we get to hear another track off the new album. New Alphabet is released tomorrow - 18th December. Check it out above.

New Eels Track Gets A Good Response

As I've mentioned Eels a few times on here before I thought I'd mentioned he's got a new track out and a new album to follow. Sadly I haven't got a track I can post for streaming but it is being streamed here http://soundcloud.com/vagrantrecords/eels-peach-blossom and you can pre-order the new album here http://eelstheband.com/stores.php. Don't get too carried away though it's not out until 15th February.

Tom Williams & The Boat - New EP

I'm a bit slow on passing this one on to you. Tom Williams and The Boat released a new EP at the start of the month. You can stream the EP below and download the title track See My Evil below. My favourite however is Get Older which has a real feel of Eels' Soul Jacker to it. Check it out.

Friends to the rescue!

A few weeks ago I was feeling pretty bored with some of the music around at the moment, so sent out an appeal to some friends (including JAL) to recommend me some albums. Following a mini-shopping spree on Amazon, I thought I'd share three of the best with you:

XX- The XX

What's that about not judging a book by the cover? When I heard the band's name and saw the black cover, I presumed some kind of My Chemical Romance spawn, but couldn't have been more wrong. The Mercury Prize nominated three-piece from London have produced a stunning début album, with the easy 'Intro' being followed up by 'VCR' and 'Crystalised', the stand-out tracks. If I had to compare them to another group, they're soft vocals and steady beats would edge me towards Massive Attack...

Hombre Lobo - Eels

From the first few beats of this 'concept' album, you know you're back listening to Eels. The rough voice of E echoes throughout 'Prizefighter', transporting you to a car with the roof down, road-tripping across America. 'In My Dreams' follows shortly after, (with a familiar nod to to 'Mr E's Beautiful Blues), before the drum-led 'Tremendous Dynamite' claims it's crown as the lead album track.

MP3: Tremendous Dynamite - Hombre Lobo

Brothers - The Black Keys

Several albums in, and The Black Keys have broken away from being the band that makes songs for TV and Film. This is an album that gets your toes moving, as 'Everlasting Light' kicks in and instantly engages. The Bluesy two-piece are often compared to the White Stripes, but if you want a hint of The Jimi Hendrix Experience thrown in for good measure, 'She's Long Gone' will be the track for you.

In My Younger Days - Eels

I've mentioned Eels a few times before on this blog and this is another track for you to sample from the new album End Times. I notice that sites like play.com are featuring it on their music home page and I think it's down to Eels have a loyal, if sometime underground following. Are you one?

MP3: In My Younger Days - Eels

Eels - New Album - End Times

It may feel like it's only two minutes since I was last writing about a new album but this is in fact a new album. I'm always wary of bands releasing double albums or two albums really close together, no one has that much talent, surely? I think it's too early to say from just a few listens but I would say that there's certainly some quality in there. The problem is I keep listening out for the Mr E's Beautiful Blues but Eels are a lot more sombre than that nowadays. I guess it's a bit like when I started listening to Elbow, I kept expecting them to be Doves but they don't quite rock in the same way. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Eels are the American Elbow.

I thought I'd post A Line In The Dirt from the new album, it has the most interesting lyrics for me, sometime interesting in their simplicity, sometimes they just draw you in, make you think.

MP3: A Line In The Dirt - Eels

That Look You Gave That Guy - Eels

Earlier in the month we featured Fresh Blood from Eels new album, now I have the recent single The Look You Gave That Guy. More of a mellow track than Fresh Blood and certainly shows the less rocky side of Eels.

MP3: That Look You Gave That Guy - Eels

Fresh Blood - Eels

I think a lot of people from the UK will have a similar relationship to me as far as Eels go. After hearing Novocaine For The Soul and Susan's House in '96 there has not been much mainstream coverage apart from Hollywood film soundtracks - OK that's major mainstream but you get what I mean. The weird thing is you may think that from these tracks, such as Mr. E's Beautiful Blues, that Mark Oliver Everett (Eels is his project) is a happy go lucky kind of guy. Sadly this is not the case, he's had a tough time of it and this comes across in his songs. They tend to either be somber numbers or rocking out tracks. His story is something I may cover another time but let's stick with the music for now.

I had a friend who lent me a lot of their early stuff and I promptly went out and bought Soul Jacker, the 2001/2 release is rammed with tracks that you would enjoy and probably recognise as a hell of a lot of Eels tracks are used in TV and film sound tracks. I enjoy the rock side of Mark's mind and that's where Souljacker excels. The new album, Hombre Lobo, has a few of these tracks, Fresh Blood being one of them. While it may not hit the highs of Souljacker it already has me excited about the next album which is due to be released in 2010.

MP3: Fresh Blood - Eels

P.S. If you don't have Souljacker your music collection has a hole in it...