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Eels - Hombre Lobo
| Spin |
| Mark Oliver Everett takes his latest album title quite literally, unleashing predatory howls over distortion-ridden stompers like "Fresh Blood," only to awake as an innocent mensch. The gentler E distances himself from his lycanthropic alter ego, searching for Ms. Right backed by a familiar arsenal of winsome melodies and elegant string arrangements. The album doesn't declare an outright winner in the "hopeless romantic versus beast" showdown, but its catchiest track is a bouncy marriage proposal ("Beginner's Luck") complete with church bells....full text |
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| Cavacool |
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With his seventh LP under the Eels name, the first since the excellent double album Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, Mark Oliver Everett (better known simply as E) has grown a beard even surpassing that of the Souljacker era. The look is fitting, as the album is titled Hombre Lobo, Spanish for werewolf. It has been four years since the last LP, but E has kept busy with autobiographies, documentaries, and a pair of compilations collecting the best of the Eels so far. While Blinking Lights was characterized by musings of God and love, compiled over many years with the revolving door of Eels members, Hombre Lobo is instead subtitled 12 songs of desire. Punctuated with the howls of both E and his trusty canine companion, Bobby Jr., the album imagines an aged “Dog-Faced Boy” from Souljacker as the main character. While writing from a character’s point of view, it’s hard not to believe that E hasn’t slipped some autobiographical details in, as he often does....full text |
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| Guardian |
| Having cleared out his attic in 2005 with the wonderful Blinking Lights ... double album - a sweep-up of ideas from a seven-year period - it's a surprise to find Mark "E" Everett treading quite such familiar territory here. Grief may not be so closely explored but unrequited love - that other great Everett topic - certainly is and the glimmering acoustic guitars and distorted, bluesy grooves sound uncannily similar to much of his earlier work. Still, Everett writes more affectingly about longing and loneliness than almost anyone else in pop and if it's no big step forward, the best moments are as desolately beautiful as ever....full text |
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