The fabulous EELS have announced their 16th studio album Cookie Happened is due for release on 16th October via E Works / Play It Again Sam. Alongside the announcement, the band has released a brand-new single, Cap In Hand – a track told from the perspective of someone finally confronting their mistakes and trying to make things right. It’s the first taste of an album that finds E (Mark Oliver Everett) again reflecting on life’s small victories, inevitable disappointments, and the strange beauty of simply having been here at all. The album can be preordered here.
Speaking about the album title, E says: “All of this will be forgotten. Every joy, accomplishment, and hardship will one day become so irrelevant that it will be as if none of it occurred. But as the great philosopher of our times, Cookie Monster once said: ‘Me no cry because cookie is finished. Me smile because cookie happened.’ This will all be forgotten. But isn’t it still a beautiful thing that it happened?”
This latest offering follows 2024’s critically acclaimed EELS TIME!, which saw EELS continuing their remarkable late-career run with a collection of songs that balanced reflection, humour, and hard-won optimism. With its latest offering, EELS hope to once again demonstrate that few artists are better at finding meaning in life’s messiest moments.
The album’s lead single, Cap In Hand, introduces one of the record’s recurring characters: a person attempting to make peace with their mistakes. E explains, “I wanted to sound kind of worn out for this one too, like someone who’s messed up their life but now sees the error of their ways and is trying to make amends with their tail between their legs. You know how record companies are: “We don’t care what you give us, just make sure you sound defeated on the first two tracks!”
EELS have enjoyed one of the most consistently acclaimed and distinctive careers in modern music. The ever-evolving project of singer, songwriter, and producer E (Mark Oliver Everett), EELS have released a solid body of work since their 1996 debut, Beautiful Freak. Beyond music, E is also the author of the acclaimed memoir Things the Grandchildren Should Know and the subject of the award-winning documentary Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, which explored his relationship with his father, the pioneering quantum physicist Hugh Everett III.
Here’s the single:
“Cookie Happened” Album Tracklist:
01 Clobbered
02 Cap In Hand
03 All Forgotten
04 Bamboozled Again
05 Lost and Barkiong
06 Taking Pictures
07 New Story
08 Congratulations To Me
09 One Razzle, One Dazzle
10 I’m On Standby
11 Dum Dums
12 The Way I Was Made
