Eels – Tomorrow Morning (E Works)

Tomorrow Morning, the latest album from Mark “E” Everett, completes a trilogy begun with 2009’s Hombre Loco and this spring’s End Times. Unconnected by a storyline or thematic unity, the records instead present a series of life stages through the eyes of one creative mind. Where Hombre Loco explored the various permutations of desire and End Times the unsuccessful conclusion of what grew out of that pursuit, Tomorrow Morning finds E crawling from the wreckage of his broken relationships and facing a new day. Backed mostly by warm keyboards, E is in what seems like an uncharacteristically optimistic mood, singing the praises of a “Spectacular Girl,” announcing his rebirth to a gospel beat in “Looking Up” and moving forward with the groove-ridden “This is Where It Gets Good.” His sardonic sense of humor is intact, mind – cf. the raucous “Baby Loves Me” (“And she’s smarter than you”) – but E is definitely inviting the sun to break through the clouds. Of course, he’s done this before; the tragedy-ridden Electro-Shock Blues ends with a note of optimism, a reaffirmation that, no matter how much shit life may dump on you, it’s still meant to be lived. Tomorrow Morning follows suit, as E reminds himself – and thus the rest of us – that to keep on keepin’ on is indisputably a Good Thing.

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