Eels

Often sporting a cigar, a cane, and an I’m-cooler-than-everyone-in-this-room-times-two stage presence, Eels frontman Mark Oliver Everett doesn’t exactly set himself up as a man of the people. But as soon as the songs begin to flow, there’s rarely a distracted ear in the crowd. Everett set the template for a career mixing hopelessness and transcendence with Eels’ sophomore record, Electro-Shock Blues, which captures the essence of deep, soul-crushing depression on an almost visceral level. So it’s peculiar that 2010’s Tomorrow Morning is ostensibly an optimistic view on redemption. Still, it works: Pulling away the gloom lets Everett’s songs shine and reveals catchy, instantly familiar melodies wrapped in electronic warmth.

Updated 07/04/2011