I Like the Way This Is Going

Mark Oliver Everett (E) has spent his career writing songs about grief, loneliness, and survival — his father, sister, and mother all died within years of each other, and the Eels' catalog is a sustained attempt to make art out of that accumulation of loss. Souljacker (2001) was a harder, more aggressive record.

I Like the Way This Is Going opens the album with something close to optimism — which, from E, is genuinely moving. The guitar riff is direct, the production by John Parish leaning into rawness, the vocal performance allowing something like pleasure.

The Eels' catalog rewards sustained listening in a way that their singles-based reputation doesn't capture. Everett is one of American music's most honest autobiographical writers.