EELS have released their 16th studio album, COOKIE HAPPENED, out now via E Works / Play It Again Sam. Led by singer, songwriter and producer E (Mark Oliver Everett), the twelve-track collection finds the band reflecting on mortality, friendship, regret and the fleeting moments that give life its meaning, combining their trademark dark humour with warmth, introspection and a hard-won sense of optimism.
EELS
The album arrives as another chapter in one of alternative rock’s most distinctive and enduring careers. Since their 1996 debut, Beautiful Freak, EELS have built a catalogue that balances melancholic pop, experimental rock and deeply personal songwriting. Across three decades, Everett has developed a distinctive way of exploring life’s contradictions, finding unexpected tenderness in disappointment and humour in the face of uncertainty.
With COOKIE HAPPENED, that perspective turns towards the small victories and inevitable setbacks that shape our lives, alongside the extraordinary fact that any of it happens at all. Rather than attempting to offer definitive answers, Everett approaches these themes with characteristic curiosity, questioning the significance we attach to our experiences while recognising the beauty of having lived them.
Explaining the thinking behind the album, Everett draws inspiration from an unlikely philosophical source:
“All of this will be forgotten. Every joy, accomplishment and hardship will one day become so irrelevant 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?”
That sentiment captures the record’s central tension: the knowledge that everything is temporary set against the conviction that our experiences still matter. Across twelve tracks, COOKIE HAPPENED moves between reflection and release, with Everett’s world-weary delivery providing a steady emotional thread through songs that examine the past without losing sight of the present.
The album’s focus track, New Story, finds Everett in typically philosophical form, questioning the search for personal improvement and the extent to which meaningful change must come from within. “I’m always interested in how much we look outside ourselves for self-improvement verses how much of it is really only possible from within ourselves… Discuss”
The track sits alongside a run of singles that have offered different perspectives on the album’s themes. Cap In Hand, the first preview of the record, is a warm-hearted, bittersweet reflection on recognising past mistakes and attempting to put things right. Its introspective approach establishes the album’s interest in accountability, personal growth and the complicated business of moving forward.
The subsequent double single paired All Forgotten, a sweeping, string-led meditation on mortality, with I’m On Standby, an affectionate ode to friendship and the reassurance of being there when someone needs you. More recently, Congratulations To Me found Everett considering the moment when it becomes necessary to stop taking certain things quite so seriously.
Together, the singles suggest a record that approaches life’s difficulties from several angles, acknowledging loss and regret while making room for affection, humour and perspective. The full tracklisting also includes Clobbered, Bamboozled Again, Lost And Barking, Taking Pictures, One Razzle, One Dazzle, Dum Dums and The Way I Was Made, completing a twelve-song collection that continues the band’s long-running exploration of the absurdities and emotional complexities of everyday existence.
COOKIE HAPPENED follows 2024’s EELS TIME!, which continued the group’s remarkable late-career run with a blend of reflection, humour and cautious optimism. The new album builds on that approach, reaffirming Everett’s ability to turn personal observations into songs that resonate beyond their immediate circumstances.
The release also arrives as EELS revisit the beginnings of their story. The definitive collection Meet The Eels: Essential EELS Vol. 1 (1996–2006) is now available on vinyl for the first time, bringing together material from the first decade of the band’s career. The collection offers a chance to trace the development of Everett’s songwriting, from the lo-fi charm and alternative-rock hooks of the early records to the increasingly expansive emotional landscapes that followed.
Further celebrating the group’s origins, a 30th-anniversary edition of Beautiful Freak is scheduled for release on 13 November 2026. The band’s debut established the foundations of their sound, blending alternative rock, melancholic pop and offbeat experimentation across twelve tracks. It includes early favourites Novocaine For The Soul and Susan’s House, with the anniversary edition featuring an expanded deluxe tracklisting that includes non-album material never previously released on vinyl.
Three decades on from Beautiful Freak, EELS continue to find fresh ways to explore familiar questions. COOKIE HAPPENED embraces the impermanence of life without surrendering to pessimism, suggesting that even experiences destined to fade can remain meaningful simply because they happened.
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