Eels are releasing their 15th studio album.
Titled EELS TIME!, the band announced on Thursday (29.02.24) the record is due for release on 7 June via E Works/Play It Again Sam.
Along with the announcement, the group shared its acoustic-led opening track ‘Time’ – the result of their first in-person recording session since the beginning of the Covid pandemic.
A press release announcing the new release said: “The album news follows a busy 2023 for Eels, where they finally hit the road for their long-awaited ‘Lockdown Hurricane’ tour of Europe and North America and brought the year to a close by releasing their second best of compilation album ‘Eeels So Good: Essential Eels, Vol.2’ and a brand new track, ‘Christmas, Why You Gotta Do Me Like This’.”
Recorded between Los Feliz, California and Dublin, Ireland, EELS TIME! consists of 12 new tracks with collaborators such as Koool G Murder, The Chet, Tyson Ritter, Sean Coleman and more.
Eels – an ever-changing project of its 60-year-old lead singer and songwriter E, real name Mark Oliver Everett – have had one of the most consistently acclaimed careers in music, and have released 14 studio albums since their 1996 debut ‘Beautiful Freak’.
In 2008 E published his highly acclaimed book ‘Things the Grandchildren Should Know’ and starred in the award-winning ‘Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives’ documentary about the search to understand his quantum physicist dad Hugh Everett III.
E recently said he found Christmas a bit of a “bummer” in a chat to mark the release of the band’s third festive song, ‘Christmas, Why You Gotta Do Me Like This’.
He told The Sun about his feelings on the festive season: “I’m all for the jolly Christmas and I’ve had some very jolly Christmases myself.
“As a kid growing up in America, I was pretty satisfied just to sit in the dark watching the tree lights blink. I didn’t have my Nintendo Switch!
“But I do think it’s important to remember that BEFORE Ebenezer Scrooge becomes the nice guy who buys everybody Christmas dinner, Tiny Tim’s pretty miserable.
“So I thought, ‘Let’s do some music for him.’”
E added about the melancholy feel of his band’s new track: “It is pretty relentless, but at least the sleigh bells automatically evoke snow falling.
“As an adult, I’ve had Christmases, probably like everybody, which are just very bad timing.
“I wanted to do a song for that guy or girl who has just bought an expensive present for their partner and then got broken up with.”
The song features the lines: “I put up my lights and I hung the mistletoe/So why did you have to leave me all alone?”