Performed by Eels Rated 4.0/5.0, based on 75 reviews. Buy from Amazon: New price: $7.10 Used price: $2.99

A mindblowing experience in existential shock and awe.
Rating: 5/5
Eels founding member Mark Everett (also known as "a Man Called E," "Mr. E," or simply "E") is a true tortured artist and no stranger to existential angst. Everett's father was distant and an alcoholic before his 1982 death. After the 1996 release of Beautiful Freak, Everett's sister committed suicide and his mother was diagnosed with cancer. Everett writes melancholy pop music with darkly poetic and tormented lyrics (e.g., "Novocaine for the Soul"). Several of his albums have even been targeted by the Bush administration as an example of what's wrong with the entertainment industry. Blinking Lights and Other Revelations is a double-album experience in existential rock music for thinkers. Everett says the album is about "God and all the questions related to the subject of God. It's also about hanging on to my remaining shreds of sanity and the blue sky that comes the day after a terrible storm, and it's a love letter to life itself, in all its beautiful, horrible glory." The fuzzed-over lyrics on this album are not only explicitly obscene, but explicitly existential. Tom Waits, Peter Buck, and John Sebastian all contribute to the album. At times, Everett's distorted, gruff vocals even sound a little like Waits on an album setlist including:

1. Theme From Blinking Lights 1:44
2. From Which I Came / A Magic World 3:13
3. Son Of A Bitch 2:27
4. Blinking Lights (For Me) 2:01
5. Trouble With Dreams 4:33
6. Marie Floating Over The Backyard 2:03
7. Suicide Life 2:41
8. In The Yard, Behind The Church 4:05
9. Railroad Man 4:15
10. The Other Shoe 2:32
11. Last Time We Spoke 2:22
12. Mother Mary 3:21
13. Going Fetal 2:21
14. Understanding Salesmen 2:43
15. Theme For A Pretty Girl That Makes You Believe God Exists 2:06
16. Checkout Blues 2:26
17. Blinking Lights (For You) 2:00

Disc 2


1. Dust Of Ages 2:20
2. Old Shit / New Shit 3:17
3. Bride Of Theme From Blinking Lights 1:52
4. Hey Man (Now Your're Really Living) 3:02
5. I'm Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart 3:56
6. To Lick Your Boots 3:30
7. If You See Natalie 3:41
8. Sweet Li'l Thing 3:27
9. Dusk: A Peach In The Orchard 1:17
10. Whatever Happened To Soy Bomb 2:26
11. Ugly Love 2:57
12. God's Silence 1:26
13. Losing Streak 2:52
14. Last Days of My Bitter Heart 1:35
15. The Stars Shine In The Sky Tonight 3:31
16. Things The Grandchildren Should Know 5:22

Stripped down versions of these songs also appear on the Eels' live album, With Strings: Live at Town Hall.

G. Merritt

Probably the best album of the 21st Century
Rating: 5/5
Yes,that subject line is pretty dramatic, and I wrote it because I mean it. I'm one of those consumers of all forms of music, my 80gb iPod can only hold part of my collection, so it's fair to say that I've sampled much of the better musical output in multiple genres over the past 20 years. None of that prepared me for "Blinking Lights and Other Revelations."

E, very simply put, is for my money the finest artist of his generation--for me, I think of him as the Elvis Costello for his generation, meaning that he can work in multiple genres, come at his art from seemingly endless angles, and writes songs that are deeply profound, and often profoundly hilarious. Like Elvis, he is also extremely prolific, and every Eels album is at least quite good, with most being superlative. So his being prolific in no way affects his quality, if only for the better.

Much is made of E's history, and with good reason. His father invented the "many world's theory" i.e. parallel universes--if you've ever watched a sci fi show, you have E's father to thank for any parallel universe plotlines--and was considered one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. His beloved sister who was his best friend killed herself, and just a year later his mother died of cancer. Then his cousin and her husband, two of his few remaining family members, were in the plane that crashed into the pentagon on 9/11. This is a man who has seen extraordinary highs and lows.

Now let's get onto his music. With his background, as an artist it would be hard to imagine him making any kind of music that didn't somehow grapple with all of that material. I'm a writer myself, and like E, you work with what you know, and use your imagination to write about what you don't know. E excels at both. Just consider the title of this album--Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. What a realization for him to have had, and share with the rest of us, so I will never look at blinking lights the same again--his thought was, one night as he looked up at a plane flying overhead, wouldn't it be wonderful if the lights had some way to communicate messages to us from the cosmos. I have heard that title song hundreds of times, and I don't think there's a time I can hear it and not get teary eyed.

But as others have said, focus too much on the sad side of E's story, and you'll miss an incredibly wicked sense of humor. He had an idea for this album that it could be like a film, so like a film there's moments of joy, moments of tragedy, and in the instrumental numbers, he thinks of these (according to an interview I read) as intermissions in between the songs so you can have the opportunity to allow the previous songs to have the space to work their way into your consciousness, and not dump all the heavy, or all the sweet, on you at once--the album paces itself beautifully in its sequencing.

I've owned his album now for about seven months, and there isn't a day I don't listen to at least a few songs off of it. E opens up a view into a world where there's an opportunity to look at common things in a new way. The sad songs are heartbreaking, but at their bleakest there is always at least a ray of hope, and often downright optimism and hope for the future. To quote one of my favorite examples of how he does this, from one of the very saddest songs on the album, "Checkout Blues": "Hang on to a little thing/And let it guide the way/Bring it with you to/Another day". Even in the face of his worse wrestlings with the sufferings of this world, E's a fighter, and he's not giving in. On my worst days, that thought has often entered my head as an excellent strategy for survival at the least, and happiness at best.

Like others have said, to judge this as a morbid album for the depressed only is to have clearly missed the entire point of the album, which is full of hope and a search for deeper meaning in life. If you're looking for the real thing--genius as it unfolds--look no further. If you wonder about the deeper questions of life: why are we here? what's our purpose? why do people suffer? and of course, why does Tom Waits squeal like a baby while E introduces the latest dance craze, "Everybody's Going Fetal" :) then you've found an album you'll find it hard to stop obsessing about. Electroshock Blues was my favorite in the Eels catalog until this album came along, and it just seems to me a continuation of the previous album, this time from a more mature artist who has had the time to contemplate, absorb, and acclimate himself to the difficulties that have made up his life--and has come out on top despite all of it. To quote E himself: "Do you hear me? My losing streak is done!" And no one more richly deserves it. Rock on, E, your losing streak is done! E also asks, "Am I stronger than the curse?" meaning the seemingly horrific series of events that took his entire family from him, and this album answers that question in a nutshell--he had the strength to work on this album for seven years, and produce a work of heartbreaking artistic genius. E, we all hope you make it to a ripe old age (so you can really inhabit that grumpy old man persona), because we love you, and because we can't wait to see what lies ahead in your musical output!

Will they ever stop?
Rating: 5/5
This album's best quality is that it combines both the "classic" Eels sound and a newer darker sound. The Eels prove once again that they can set any mood and write about any subject in a gloriously playful and engaging way.

A New Fan
Rating: 5/5
I'd never heard of the Eels before and I can't even remember where I read a glowing review of Blinking Lights... but this music is incredible. For someone just discovering this band, I'm dumbstruck. For everyone who discovered these guys before me, lucky you.