The Eels are back with a new album. The band led by Mark Oliver Everett, alias E, will release their sixteenth studio work, “Cookie Happened”, out on E Works/Play It Again Sam on October 16th. Accompanying the announcement also comes the first single, “Cap In Hand” (listen below), a bittersweet song that introduces some of the album's atmospheres and tells the story of a man who tries to come to terms with his mistakes and put his life back in order. Between melancholy and human warmth, the song anticipates an album focused on small daily victories, on inevitable defeats and on the value of the experience itself. Explaining the meaning of the title, Everett reflects on the ephemeral nature of existence: “All this will be forgotten. Every joy, achievement and difficulty will one day become so irrelevant that it will be as if it never happened. But, as the great philosopher of our time, Cookie Monster, said: 'I don't cry because the cookie is gone. I smile because the cookie existed.' All this will be forgotten. But isn't it still a wonderful thing that it happened?”
“Cap In Hand” also revolves around one of the album's recurring characters, a figure marked by mistakes but determined to seek a form of redemption. “For this song I also wanted to sound a little worn and tired, like someone who has ruined his life but who now recognizes his mistakes and tries to make amends, with humility and a bowed head. You know how record companies are: 'We don't care what you give us, as long as you sound defeated in the first two tracks!'”, he commented with his usual sarcasm. The “Cookie Happened” lineup:
- Clobbered
- Cap In Hand
- All Forgotten
- Bamboozled Again
- Lost And Barking
- Taking Pictures
- New Story
- Congratulations To Me
- One Razzle, One Dazzle
- I'm On Standby
- Dum Dums
- The Way I Was Made
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
