Mark Everett (E to his friends) is a miserable old so-and-so. Given that he's lost practically all of his immediate family to a variety of nasty causes, however, you can't exactly blame him for not being full of the joys. For the last seven years, in between other Eels projects, he's been working on this remarkable album: a 33-track epic that chronicles his pain and bereavements in all their gory detail. It all comes spilling out in these furious rockers and achingly beautiful ballads, shot through with ghostly arrangements and growling vocals. And amazingly enough, by the end of it all you get the feeling that he's achieved some kind of inner peace, or at the very least an acceptance of his fate. It's certainly not for the faint-hearted - but as bedsit albums go, this one's an absolute classic.

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