12 Songs of Desire
Also something that I’m listening to, as it just arrived to my house yesterday … on orange colored vinyl, no less.
Yes, that’s right, I said vinyl. I know you all know whay vinyl IS, but when’s the last time you bought or even played a record? You shouldn’t deprive yourself of this very visceral mightily enjoyable experience any longer. Go get a record player if you have to, get some records in a musical style that actually pleases you, get some headphones, and then sit back and enjoy. You can put a thank-you fiver in the tip jar when you’re done.
So this is The Eels’ Hombre Lobo, 12 Songs of Desire. I’ve only really given it two listens, and half-hearted ones at that. For as much as I love the vinyl, living in a house with two very young girls and a hyper dog doesn’t really accommodate a concentrated listen, when the one active record player is in the living room. I say ‘active’ because I actually have another cool little device, the ION Portable USB turntable, that will actually let me convert my beloved, though ultimately, decidedly non-portable, vinyl LP’s into very convenient-for-the-modern-age MP3’s. Awesome, right? Well, I’ll write that experience up when I finally bust it out of the box.
Back to Hombre Lobo. My first listen, I wasn’t all that impressed. I liked the first song the on the album, “prizefighter”, thinking that the entire album was going to have potential, and that it was going to be much better than 2005’s Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. After the record was over, though, I thought, “oh great, another boring Eels album.” As much as the music world adored and praised that double album, I just found it to be boring and repetitive. There are a few gems that stuck with me and maybe I haven’t listened to it enough. But it just didn’t rock enough for me, and I think that therein lies the problem. I discovered The Eels through Souljacker in 2003 when I borrowed my flatmate’s copy. I immediately fell in love with that album listening to it constanly. There’s a lot of rocking out on that record. There’s some soft songs too, like the beautiful “Fresh Feeling.” 2003’s Shootenanny! kept up the good rocking, and a personal favorite of mine is “Saturday Morning.” I just love the concept of the song. It’s like a rock anthem from a six year old who woke up way too early on Saturday morning and just wants to know who’s out there that’s going to play with him. I certainly remember being that kid.
Well, that was certainly a tangent. I guess I have a lot more to say about The Eels records than I thought. I better get it out in some other reviews. Well, where was I? Oh yes, talking about Hombre Lobo …
My second listen, though still half hearted, walking around with the baby, playing and dancing with the toddler, I got a better sense of what the album was going to be like. I don’t know why with my first listen my brain registered “boring” because with this second listen, even with the distractions on hand, I wanted to listen again immediately, but parental duty called, or it was late, or something.
Now, in looking up the link to The Eels site “Fresh Blood” from Hombre … was featured, and I let it play through, and I really want to listen to the rest of the album.
So, it looks like I have two things for the To Do list: (1) fire up the ION and convert Hombre Lobo to MP3’s, and (2) strap on the headphones for the proper listen.