Eels – Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (2005)

As I've already said when I wrote about the Eels debut album, they're one of my all time favourite bands. Blinking Lights and Other Revelations is a double album that I view belonging to the so-called later phase of the Eels. Back when it was released, I was really excited, because I felt like it was the best thing released by them since their first three albums. I might still think that this is among the best albums, but it's also clear that it's not as good as the first three albums. This album sounds more like a band effort than some of the earlier albums. The songs are as personal as ever, but the instrumentation gives a sense of a band much more than the very intimate first albums. I feel like this is probably the first Eels album that works as a sort of autobiography of E's life. There are lots of historical topics about his life in the songs.



It was around this time that I read E's actual autobiography, Things The Grandchildren Should Know. It's also a title of the last song on this album. Based on the book, this was the time when E had slowly gotten over the horrible things that happened to his family during the first few albums and he could view his personal history more openly. That's probably why this album has an air of self-investigation.

The album can also be thought of as some sort of theme album, because there's a certain musical theme repeating itself over the album. It starts from the very first intro, Theme From Blinking Lights. These theme pieces are a perfect example of the things I love about Eels. The endearing and beautiful, yet simple melodies with interesting instruments, such as the theremin and glockenspiel, with E's raspy voice that just sounds at the same time so vulnerable and so aged.

There are various great songs on this album, but I'll just go over some of them here. Trouble With Dreams reminds me of another song about insomnia from the Eels that appeared in one of the Shrek films. It also coincided with my own song about insomnia. Maybe I was influenced by Eels to make such a song, I can't remember anymore. Railroad Man is one of the Eels songs that I've liked to listen to the most. It has all of these country elements and it makes me look back to those careless days as a teenager when the summers would last forever with all the time on my hands. Understanding Salesman has one of the most beautiful melodies of any of these songs. The string arrangements are simple but amazingly beautiful. Hey Man (Now You're Really Living) shows the hopeful and even cheerful side of Eels that they venture on their more upbeat albums. If You See Natalie is probably my favourite song on the album. E is at his best with just playing the grand piano and singing his heart out. When I saw Eels live at the Barbican, these kinds of heartbreak songs made it one of the best concerts I've ever been to.

Eels has always had some great music videos. The music video for Trouble With Dreams is a great dream-like illustration of E wondering around in his pyjamas in a haunted house and a sunny garden. At some point, I really want to try and watch all of the official Eels videos.

I don't listen to this particular album as much anymore, but now that I did, I can see why it made such an impression on me back in the day. It was amazing to get an Eels album with more than 30 new songs at the hight of my Eels fandom.

Listen to the album on Spotify.