Secret Meeting score: 80
by Philip Moss and Phil Scarisbrick
Mark Oliver Everett aka E is one of alternative music’s most enigmatic characters. For the last quarter of a century, he has hop scotched through musical genres, releasing records that have ranged from down right beautiful to the down right absurd, as well as producing one of the best music based autobiographies, Things The Grandchildren Should Know, that has ever been published. Since his last LP, 2014’s The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett, E had kept a low profile, taking an extended hiatus from music after going through a divorce, remarriage and the birth of his son. That is until now, and the release of his twelfth studio LP, The Deconstruction.
The funky beats and orchestral overtones that flourish throughout opening track I’ll Break Apart, point to a playful Pet Sounds influence. The left turns and oddities come thick and fast as E’s artistry is on full display. That signature voice sounding as good as it ever has. The plucky Motown pop of Today is the Day is a joyful lesson about changing your life for the better, and suggests that the break, plus the changes in his personal life, is working for him. And although Eels have never been known to get a huge amount of mainstream radio play, this hook filled ditty would fit right at home there.
Bone Dry is a ghoulish boogie that you’d imagine the dead getting down to in some From Dusk ‘Til Dawn-style dive bar. The accompanying video takes this theme further with its Corpse Bride-influenced animation. Sweet Scorched Earth could be his most tender and loving lyric ever written, but the unsettling Hitchcockian strings give it a typical E-type twist. While There I Said It is perhaps the album’s finest moment- a piano-led ballad that is full of majesty with the kind of cantankerous romanticism that may have been baulked at by many artists, but suits E perfectly.
In the wrong hands, Premonition feels like a song that may have been turned into a generic power-ballad but, here though, the understated, choral presentation gives it real pathos, and is all the more captivating for it- ‘I had a premonition it’s all gonna be fine… you and I have a love that never can die’. Yes, whisper it – E almost seems content.
Stylistically, the The Deconstruction‘s sound resembles Eels’ sophomore album, Electro-Shock Blues, but the lyrics feel different to anything he has written before. With Electro-Shock Blues, you often felt uneasy listening to the open-wound account of Everett’s sister’s suicide, as well as his mother’s terminal cancer diagnosis. Here though, the lyrics take on far warmer subjects. Images of compassion and kindness are the heart of this record. So why does it feel so uncomfortable? It may be that even with a positive look at the world, his own self-confidence doesn’t allow him to fully immerse himself in all that is good in his life. What it gives us though is his finest collection of songs since the 2005 double album, Blinking Lights And Other Revelations. One thing it definitely confirms though is that there is only one Mark Everett, and we’re fortunate to be exposed to his wonderful music.
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