by
Eels
- Record Label: Relativity
- Release Date: Apr 22, 2014
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- Critic score
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Apr 28, 2014This is unquestionably slow going and perhaps best taken in smaller doses, but it’s ultimately rewarding for those willing to take advice from a guy whose darkness and internal demons have remained key components to his emotionally naked creativity.
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Apr 23, 2014Cautionary Tales certainly doesn’t feel new--it ultimately feels like a retread of the orchestral and maudlin sound he tried on two records ago--but it feels true to its songwriter.
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Apr 18, 2014The Cautionary Tales... is wracked with recrimination, remorse and self-doubt. It can be bleak--the electric piano of “Lockdown Hurricane” seems a sound soaked in self-pity--but the intimate beauty of the strings and woodwinds sweetens the pill.
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Apr 14, 2014It works well enough as a snapshot of where Everett finds himself as he approaches middle age, but the overwrought agonisation on the past and infuriatingly samey instrumental choices make it a difficult record to love.
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Apr 21, 2014Reflecting entirely on a misplaced relationship, The Cautionary Tales of... is a personal record that lacks few comforting cushions.
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Apr 14, 2014Cautionary Tales is underwhelming, but it's also a victim of context.
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Apr 14, 2014This record utilizes straightforward folk-rock with understated string and brass accompaniments, mostly stripped of the whimsical music box quirks of yesteryear.
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Apr 17, 2014The Lennon reference serves to highlight the record's main flaw: the former Beatle's cathartic recording provided a jolting contrast with his previous work, whereas Everett--now in his 51st year--ventures nowhere new.