It’s been a long five-year wait for LA singer/songwriter Mark Everett, aka front man for The Eels. But I’m here to tell you Hombre Lobo is well worth the wait.

Sitting on a plane, travelling four and a half hours home, I’m glad I’ve got The Eels. This record is perfect for feeling melancholic, reflective and somewhat gloomy. It’s one for the solo listener reflecting on the ups and downs - more so the downs - of life. After a two week holiday in absolute paradise, this album is accompanying me back to reality, back to all things mundane and less… holiday-like.

Now without sounding as though I particularly LIKE inflicting sadness into my heart and injecting salty tears into my eyeballs, I occasionally do like to listen to music that either encourages or supports a cheerless mood, (notice I use the word cheer-less; its not ‘depriving one’s cheer’ or being ‘un-cheery,’ it’s just not ‘cheerful’ and yes, there is a difference!).

This album features some of Everett’s most imaginative and emotional material yet. Each song is laced with somber cigarette smoke that evokes this gloominess and deep thinking, the kind of smoke that you sometimes accidentally blow in your own eyes causing a real sting and sometimes even a rolling, salty tear.

Each song is a combination of beautiful lyrics, soft melodies, a rock’n’raw voice and passionate feelings. ‘That Look You Give That Guy’ is the clear favourite, pulling hard on the heart strings whilst simultaneously getting you singing along at full volume. The contrasting heavy stomp of ‘Lilac Breeze’ will wake you up to the pain of heart break, and ‘Fresh Blood’ will remind you of a search for that ‘one’.

Lets face it, apart from your odd Ned Flanders-happy-go-lucky-type-neighbour, each one of us human beings are susceptible to a slight gloominess every now and then. It’s perfectly normal. Actually, I think Everett realised this before anyone and thus, created songs like these to support the mood. As the lyrics of ‘Beginner’s Luck’ say, The road in front of us is long and it is wide/ And with beginner’s luck we’ve gotta take the ride, so people, accept your occasionally heavy heart, listen to the Eels, and perhaps get a shrink.

-Sophie Robinson.