EELS leader Mark Oliver Everett and company have announced their 16th studio album, Cookie Happened, due Oct. 16 via E Works/Play It Again Sam. The bittersweet lead single “Cap in Hand” can be sampled below.

The new album follows 2024’s EELS Time! and arrives amid renewed attention on Everett’s singular career. As previously reported, filmmaker Judd Apatow is developing a feature documentary about EELS and Everett’s unlikely journey from cult-rock outsider to one of alternative music’s most enduring and idiosyncratic voices.

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“Cap in Hand” is narrated by a character reckoning with the consequences of his own mistakes and attempting to make amends, delivered with the mixture of humor, vulnerability and hard-earned wisdom that has long defined the EELS catalog. “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,” Everett said. “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!'”

Regarding the album title, Everett notes, “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?”

EELS have not played live since the fall of 2023 but it is unknown if the group is planning to support Cookie Happened with any road work. In related news, after years of licensing issues, the group’s 50-track rarities collection Useless Trinkets has recently returned to streaming platforms.

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