End Times

iTunes Review

Much like Bob Dylan’s Blood On the Tracks, John Martyn’s Grace and Danger and  Brendan Gamble’s Heartless Moon, Eels’ End Times is a beautifully wrought album formed by the ruins of the songwriter’s divorce. In this case, Mark Everett split with his wife in 2005 and took five years to release this musical statement. It begins with a whisper. “The Beginning” sounds like Beck performing Sea Change or Mark Kozelek at any time in his career. The bare acoustic guitar stretches the soul over new bones. Recorded mostly at home with a four-track recorder, End Times is as its title implies. Everett sees apocalypse everywhere he looks. The rockabilly fueling “Gone Man” is a last ditch attempt to party as the night shuts down. Everett sings in anguish during “In My Younger Days” as the keyboards and guitars often blur his vocal. “A Line In The Dirt” cries at the piano with a sweet grandeur. “I Need a Mother” is as honest and unnerving as they come. End Times is a gripping, sometimes terrifying experience.