Tentatively begun the year after eels’ hit debut Beautiful Freak (1996), five albums on Blinking Lights further defines E’s ornery kingdom of uncomfortable truth and beauty. It stretches into pop’s outer limits, mourning the absence of God and Mom in a fallen America. When he says making it “almost killed” him, you doubt it’s a metaphor. For E, rock’n’roll really is life and death.
Blinking Lights’ lengthy gestation has left its mark. You can feel the jeweller’s care with which its 33 tracks have been chipped into place. Unfolding with the pregnant pauses of the Bergman movies that were its models, its pace may seen alien, even arthritic. But keep listening, and Blinking Lights comes into focus.
It’s an album composed partly from disgust and defeat, as in “The Other Shoe”’s litany of literal and societal tumours, or “Railroad Man”’s admission of personal obsolescence. The 78 crackle of “Last Time We Spoke”, meanwhile, sees E wounded by the death of someone who knew his soul. But if the quiet of other people’s graves sometimes haunts Blinking Lights, that makes its moments of defiant affirmation more moving. “Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living)” would be a hit if radio was supposed to make you feel, positing gut-spilling pain and heartache as the price of admission to life. In a record that deals soberly with suicide, that could be the belief that allows E to not only still be here, but conclude: “I’m a very thankful man.” Intermittently funny and never depressing, this confirms him among America’s greats.
By Nick Hasted
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Powys
I like Eels I like them a lot.I 'm still waiting for this one to grow on me .Don't get me wrong its good but maybe its just like so much of his other stuff it doesn't stretch me as a listener.
There are beautiful songs on this cd but there are also songs that didn't hold my attention or sounded too much like the back catalogue.In the yard behind the church sticks out.
It could be me maybe I've been letting my sons Insane Clown Posse stuff play around the house too much.This is the cd I wanted to love but have so far had cloth ears for it.
Co Wicklow
The Eels were one of those bands that I had never quite got around to. I'd heard a few tracks here and there and liked them but I was never tempted to but an album.
I saw so many good reviews about Blinking Lights that I thought I'd take a chance.
I love it when taking a chance pays off. I love this album and have since bought most of the back catalogue. Yes, it is very similar to the other albums but I find Blinking Lights to be the best of the bunch - maybe because it's where I started from.
Quite like Beck but with much more accessible lyrics and rawer emotion (don't get me wrong - I'm a Beck fan too).
I'm just surprised this didn't make the top 50 of 05 in Uncut. I would have it in around oh, maybe 15th (ahead of Beck).
Perthshire
At first i wasn't too impressed by blinking lights but it really grows on you. it's one of the most complete double albums i've ever heard with a genuine sense of beginning, middle and end. There are several classic songs-railroad man, understanding salesman, old shit new shit- that stand out even amonst eels'impressive back catalogue. after a couple of disappointing albums this is a real return to form for E and given time will become essential to any fan of decent music.
