E's Trilogy Came To An End

They say it's something magical about number three. Now, I can't tell if Eels (or Mark Everett, if you prefer it that way) had that in mind when he decided to release Hombre Lobo back in 2009, but this is rather irrelevant. Thing is the trilogy, started with that album and continued in January with End Times, has finally come to an end with Tomorrow Morning.

Now, one could expect a new collection of stories about sadness, depression and stuff like that, but even the cover (which represents a blossomed tree) proves it wrong. Hombre Lobo was about desire and unrequited love, End Times was about separation and aging. Tomorrow Morning is about love and its beauty. Of course, at first sight this might be unbelievable (in spite of the cover, or maybe just because of it) and listening to the first song, In Gratitude for This actually makes you believe it. However, Everett corrects the first impression in I'm a Hummingbird, by pening the lines "All the seconds and minutes and the hours and the days and the weeks and the months and the years of my life, it was all worth it to be here now". Happiness, you say? It might be called so. And E seems as puzzled by that as the listener when he sings "But baby loves me and she's smarter than you".

Lyrically, the album is a true celebration of love. Of course, that implies a glorification of the person who stands beside you (Spectacular Girl), a somewhat raised self-confidence (I Am the Man) as well as hope for a better, brighter future (I Like the Way This Is Going). But things can't be happy until the end (or else Everett wouldn't be Everett any longer) and that's why at times you can read between the lines the fear that everything might end. Musical wise, things couldn't be any better. Put his lyrics aside, E is best known for his love for instruments. The album is a delightful melange of acoustic guitars and electronic beats, of dreamy, ethereal ballads like I'm a Hummingbird or What I Have to Offer and catchy songs like Baby Loves Me. It even makes you regret at times that the man can't play more instruments at the same time in a live concert. That good he is.


It is not wrong to say Tomorrow Morning is a must. It does not exactly goes on the path Eels got us used to, but it is nevertheless a wonderful release, of which Everett should and must be proud of.


*photo courtesy of Eels' official site