Eels frontman E suggests we rename this particular episode “The Unconscious Art of Longevity”. With a 25 year career of zig-zagging his way through a minefield of luck, tragedy and line-up changes, Eels time is anytime. No time like now, then. Eels Time!
In Mark Oliver Everett’s autobiography “Things The Grandchildren Should Know”, the author, otherwise known as E, the frontman and band leader of Eels, wrote of Bob Dylan’s self-proclaimed destiny as a musician:
“I wish I had something like that, but I didn’t. At all. All I had was an aching sense of desperation. I didn’t have any idea what the hell I was doing and was only doing it out of not knowing what else to do”.
Despite this, or perhaps because of it, E simply continued to keep on keeping on with music, leaving his home in Virginia to seek his ‘lack of destiny’ in Los Angeles. Low and behold, he wound up being signed to a major label - not once but twice - and at the second bite of the cherry, found significant and lasting success.
No wonder then, E suggests we rename this particular episode as “The Unconscious Art of Longevity”.
Some 33 years after signing his first solo record deal, E has found his way to a 15th Eels studio L.P., the aptly named Eels Time! Recorded in Los Feliz, Los Angeles and Dublin, Ireland, the album was made by the current line-up of E himself, Little Joe (Drums), Koool G Murder (bass) and The Chet (guitar), featuring Irish folk musician Sean Coleman and new collaborator Tyson Ritter (on five songs). Ritter is the lead vocalist, bassist, pianist, and songwriter of the rock band The All-American Rejects but is better known these days as an actor. In a twist typical of the Eels story however, Ritter - who on this occasion was connected to E by his manager - turned out to live close by. But The All-American Rejects shared the same label as Eels (Dreamworks) back in the 90s. Almost two decades on, Ritter was finally reeled into Eels orbit.
It’s a microcosmic example of Eels' career story - a series of unplanned events driven by E’s whims - whatever he felt like doing at the time - a series of creative zigzag turns that often turned out for the best through luck or dare I suggest…a more similar destiny to Bobby Dylan’s than he once believed.
Let’s examine the evidence. Having been signed a second time by a major (the first was as E, for two albums) as Eels, the debut album Beautiful Freak (1997) became a qualified success - at least in the UK, reaching number 7 in the album chart and hosting no less than two top 10 singles (Novocaine For The Soul and Susan’s House, both considered indie rock classics now). However, as global stardom hovered by the open door, E decided that instead of making a follow-up record in a similar style, he would instead release a heart-wrenching set of songs about the loss of his mother and sister, and coming to terms with being the only surviving close family member.
“I followed up the sudden success with what people around me considered career suicide - making a record about my family dying. But, speaking of longevity - I very well might not be here now if I didn’t make that record [sophomore Eels album Electro-Shock Blues (1998)”.
It was fascinating to hear E’s take on how a self-sabotage album turned out to be a career-making move. There are so many examples of E inadvertently following the rules of longevity, from that early brutal left turn of Electro-Shock Blues to carrying on through a variety of band line up changes (reconciling the fall-outs too), to making his best records against the grain of business advice or the support of record labels, as with his magnum opus Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (2005).
I’m hard pushed to name an artist who has navigated (accidentally of course) so many twists and turns across a two-decade career. It certainly feels impossible for an artist to follow that kind of trajectory in today’s music culture.
“You lose some of your audience along the way, but whatever we’re doing we don’t do it half way, so I feel really lucky that enough people have stuck through all the changes and left turns over the years, that we’ve been able to keep it going”.
E seems more in tune with his audience than many other artists I’ve spoken with. Perhaps that’s the bond between those who, like him, celebrate their contradictions, vulnerabilities and submit to life’s bumpy ride.
On researching online which albums Eels fans and critics rank, it’s usually the first 4-5 records in some or other order - but when I ask him if that is annoying, especially for an artist so prolific and now with such a large body of more recent work, his reply is a confident dismissal of the common wisdom of internet fandom:
“I get a lot of people telling me their favourite is Tomorrow Morning, or End Times) is another one they seem to like”.
As it happens, those two records (both released in 2010) and generally the 2010s are my own blind spot in Eels’s repertoire, but revisiting them now does indeed reveal plenty of gems. The Eels catalogue is a fine example of what happens when an artist is allowed to follow their instincts from record to record. But for all those left turns, each album sounds distinctively like Eels and nobody else. Two of my favourites: 2002’s Souljacker and 2022’s Extreme Witchcraft, were collaborations with producer and guitarist John Parrish (famous for his long term working relationship with PJ Harvey). But those albums sound as much classic Eels as anything else in the canon.
“I’ve been doing it so long now that everyone pretty much leaves me alone. I don’t tell the label I’ve made a record until after it's mastered and finished. I pay for the whole thing myself to have the freedom of nobody putting their two cents in”.
So in some ways yes, E’s career has been “The Unconscious Art of Longevity”. But look deeper and all the signs are there - the self-belief, single-mindedness and willingness to follow his own instincts and obsessions - these factors have underpinned Eels’ journey and kept the wheels connected to the rails. And each and every one of those 15 albums has a lot to offer.
“It’s all a miracle to me that I still get to make music as my job. I’m lucky, but you have to get yourself in the best position to receive it when luck strikes”.
Amen to that.