Eels: Hombre Lobo

Do I remember, somewhere back in my days of Eels fan-hood, that E records all these tunes in his basement? Well it still sounds like he does at least, and it’s a nice thought. I read a review the other day that said Electro Shock Blues was the last good Eels album, which I couldn’t agree with. I haven’t listened to turn of the millennium, Peter Bucking Daisies of the Galaxy in years, but even thinking about it gets me quite excited, I might have to go up into the loft… hazy memories of song titles like… actually, looking at the tracklisting online I have to say I can’t remember one of them not being great. I loved that album and I forgot it! I’m sorry!

I also thought Souljacker was the nuts when it came out, my friends and I used to drive around aimlessly, or to the nearest video shop (7 miles! How times have changed) listening to its strange tilt. Believe me: listening to Eels felt subversive where we lived. At night I listened to Tool, and even had dreadlocks for a while…so much for that... ‘Dog Faced Boy’! ‘Woman Driving, Man Sleeping’! ‘Fresh Feeling’! So many memories…

But despite this faux nostalgic tone, I honestly think I could love them again. I can remember sneakily listening to Souljacker while I (the scruffiest postman Probus had ever seen) delivered the post. My earphone wire came up under my shirt and was hidden in my ridiculous, bees-waxed bundles of hair (a good friend of mine calls it “cancer of the hair”, but he’s got a nerve, being a feral ape-man who lives noisily in the woods). And how’s this for continuity: As a thirteen year old paper boy, in the very same village, I had one of my first major musical experiences with the song ‘Susan’s House’, from Beautiful Freak. An hour before I had to ride the bus to school, some gargantuan rift tore my world open in under five minutes.

Suddenly I could see a future, beyond school, that wasn’t just about working and wearing the right clothes. Was I glad that Eels got played on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show? Was I ever. I still am. Was I glad that I cracked the case of my copy of 2003’s Shootenanny before I got it home from the record shop? No I wasn’t. They wouldn’t take it back, and I thought it was boring. So we’re all agreed that E has written some excellent songs?

The reason I haven’t talked about Hombre Lobo is that it’s not that great. At various moments it has got my blood flowing, “This one sounds like!”…. Exactly. And not as good as what it reminds me of. The cloud of nostalgia between me and this album is as thick as the cloud of beard hair between E’s sunglasses and his navel. When I heard the giant-gargling, almost ‘Monster Mash’ fuzz of single ‘Fresh Blood’ it reminded me instantly of Souljacker’s grimy anthems. “Maybe it’s the most “Eels” sounding track, released to please the label” I hoped to myself. Then I saw the cover of the album and the Souljacker similarity took on the air of inevitability; my hopes were set in stone. “I might even buy a copy” I thought to myself.

Unfortunately ‘Fresh Blood’ is the best track. The only one that sounds alive. Except the distorted vocals and generally overdriven blues of ‘Tremendous Dynamite’, which continues the werewolf theme (Hombre Lobo meaning just that in Spanish). It sounds like a stab at White Stripes style simplicity, with its two powerchord riff, simple drums and E’s soulman grunts and howling of the songs title. Admittedly there is some clanky industrial percussion overlaid towards the end, but it isn’t enough to give the song an interesting texture, something E and co have long been masters of. Same goes for the textbook blues of ‘Prizefighter’, which sounds like an incredibly skilled fourteen year old who has the voice of a man in his late thirties. It’s kind of good to know that E still gets off on this music, but I find it pretty dull.

His quieter material used to sound like it was dreaming; currently it just sounds a little flat. When he communicates heartbreak with that soft falsetto, as he does here on ‘The Longing’ for instance, it sounds as private as ever. I’ve never doubted that he feels the things he sings, but there is a disconnect somewhere that I can’t quite put my finger on. He places emphasis on images and particular words in a way that suggests they hold great importance to the story and to what he is feeling, but they sound as if they have been lifted out of context and come off like a private code. This interesting, eccentric shadow which E frequently casts over a seemingly straightforward narrative is one of his strengths as a songwriter, though I think he is also at his best when describing what is going on around him.

He has a great eye for that kind of writing, but there isn’t much of it on show here. On the frenetic ‘Lilac Breeze’ he sings,

“A hungry dog howls through the trees, it echoes long on a lilac breeze.

The blackbird sings a song so sad, girl I want it bad…”

It sounds like a contrived metaphor to fit the subject of lust, rather than a contrived subject to fit a metaphor, something which E seems to have done well in the past. It’s not a bad album, it’s just lukewarm verging on tepid. Not that it’s got so cold he couldn’t bring it all back up to the boil sometime.