EELS have shared their new track Congratulations To Me, offering another glimpse into their forthcoming 16th studio album, Cookie Happened, which arrives on 16th October via E Works / Play It Again Sam. The latest song finds E, the creative force behind EELS and the stage name of singer, songwriter and producer Mark Oliver Everett, looking at one of life’s more unexpected turning points: the moment when you finally realise that some things simply are not worth taking so seriously.
Rather than presenting that realisation as a defeat, Congratulations To Me treats it as an act of liberation. Everett describes the song as being about someone reaching breaking point and choosing to celebrate what comes next, having finally freed themselves from concerns that had become unnecessarily important. “This is someone who has reached a breaking point and is celebrating it, but not in a defeated way, more of a ‘why did I care about stuff that doesn’t matter that much, I’m finally liberated’ way,” he explains. “Or something.”
EELS
That mixture of humour, resignation and hard-won perspective is quintessentially EELS. Throughout a career spanning three decades, Everett has repeatedly found ways to turn the uncomfortable, the absurd and the deeply personal into songs that are both emotionally direct and surprisingly uplifting.
Congratulations To Me is the fourth track to be unveiled from Cookie Happened, following Cap In Hand, All Forgotten and I’m On Standby. Together, the early releases suggest an album preoccupied with the everyday contradictions of being alive: small triumphs sitting alongside disappointment, memories rubbing against the present and an awareness of the sheer improbability of existence.
The new album will contain 12 tracks, with Congratulations To Me appearing towards its latter half at track eight. Other songs include Clobbered, Bamboozled Again, Lost And Barking, Taking Pictures, New Story, One Razzle, One Dazzle, Dum Dums and The Way I Was Made.
Cookie Happened follows EELS’ 2024 album EELS TIME!, continuing a remarkable period of creativity for Everett and the band. That record balanced introspection with humour and optimism, qualities that have become defining characteristics of EELS’ music. The forthcoming album also arrives as the project celebrates its extraordinary history. EELS first emerged in 1996 with the release of Beautiful Freak, an album that established Everett as a distinctive voice within alternative rock through its combination of lo-fi textures, melancholic pop, dark humour and emotionally candid songwriting.
Over the three decades since, EELS have developed one of the most distinctive catalogues in modern music, with Everett remaining the constant creative presence behind an ever-evolving project. Across numerous albums, the music has explored grief, love, loneliness, family, resilience, humour and the everyday absurdities of life without ever losing its sense of curiosity. The release of Cookie Happened is therefore accompanied by an opportunity to look back as well as forward. For the first time, the definitive Meet The Eels: Essential EELS Vol. 1 (1996–2006) collection is available on vinyl, bringing together material from the first decade of the band’s career.
Meanwhile, the 30th anniversary of Beautiful Freak is being marked with a new deluxe edition, due for release on 13th November 2026. The 1996 debut remains a landmark moment in the EELS story, introducing the project’s distinctive blend of alternative rock, lo-fi experimentation and melancholic pop. Its 12 foundational tracks include some of the group’s best-known early songs, among them Novocaine For The Soul and Susan’s House.
The anniversary edition expands the original album with a deluxe tracklist that includes non-album material that has never previously been released on vinyl, offering longtime fans an opportunity to revisit the record at the beginning of EELS’ remarkable journey.
For now, however, the focus is firmly on Cookie Happened. With Congratulations To Me, Everett turns the idea of reaching a breaking point into something unexpectedly positive: the recognition that letting go can itself be a victory. It is a fitting sentiment for an artist whose music has consistently found light in difficult places. Three decades into the EELS story, Cookie Happened looks set to continue that tradition, embracing life’s complications while finding reasons to keep moving forward.
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