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Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett (Eels) | 4/5

SINGAPORE — If you have been following the misadventures of Eels (aka Mark Oliver Everett) since the ’90s (Beautiful Monster), you will love the latest entry into Everett’s diary of expression — or depression, depending on your point of view. The new LP finds Everett in a familiar setting (read: Not upbeat like the last album). Self-pitying, sad and melancholic after the break-up of a relationship, Everett surrounds his depressing songs within the context of lush chamber pop arrangements and instrumentation. Which makes the poignancy of the material even stronger. And Everett does not hide from wearing his heart on his sleeve — on songs like Agatha Chang (“I should have stayed with Agatha Chang”) and Mistakes Of My Youth (“I hope it’s not my fate to keep defeating myself and keep repeating yesterday”), Everett makes no bones about his emotions. Drawing from the John Lennon and Neil Young schoolbook, Cautionary Tales is an important musical work that deserves more attention that it will likely receive but even that would make sense in the Everett’s scheme of things.

SINGAPORE — If you have been following the misadventures of Eels (aka Mark Oliver Everett) since the ’90s (Beautiful Monster), you will love the latest entry into Everett’s diary of expression — or depression, depending on your point of view. The new LP finds Everett in a familiar setting (read: Not upbeat like the last album). Self-pitying, sad and melancholic after the break-up of a relationship, Everett surrounds his depressing songs within the context of lush chamber pop arrangements and instrumentation. Which makes the poignancy of the material even stronger. And Everett does not hide from wearing his heart on his sleeve — on songs like Agatha Chang (“I should have stayed with Agatha Chang”) and Mistakes Of My Youth (“I hope it’s not my fate to keep defeating myself and keep repeating yesterday”), Everett makes no bones about his emotions. Drawing from the John Lennon and Neil Young schoolbook, Cautionary Tales is an important musical work that deserves more attention that it will likely receive but even that would make sense in the Everett’s scheme of things.

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