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An excerpt of "Trouble With Dreams" from "Eels With Strings: Live at the Town Ballroom"

Ever hear an instrumental passage that speaks more than a composition notebook’s worth of good lyrics? On Eels’ 2005 album Blinking Lights And Other Revelations, several moments like these are sprinkled over the course of two discs. The tracks swim in an autumnal sadness, and, when placed among the lyrical observations of one-man show Mark Oliver Everett, they turn a great record into a transcendent one. While only one of these instrumentals makes it onto Eels With Strings: Live at Town Hall, their unforgettable arrangements inspire the whole show (recorded on June 30, 2005, at Town Hall in New York City).

Everett assembled a touring band with the purpose of recreating those tender, dusky sounds, featuring a string quartet and a Tom Waitsian array of instrumentation and found instruments, including celeste, pump organ, trash can, saw, autoharp and a suitcase. The result is as unique and arresting as it sounds: The band touches on an array of Eels records, translating them all into fragile chamber pop masterpieces. And while life’s struggles are the order of the day —highlights include an autoharp-and-vocal performance of “Railroad Man,” the undulating, celeste-driven “Trouble With Dreams” and a gut-wrenching rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Girl From the North Country”—Everett’s playful, sarcastic streak is well represented. “I Like Birds” is smack dab in the middle of the show for a reason; its friendly, three-chord bounce, background whistling and whimsical lyrics (“It’s alright if you act like a turd/’Cause I like birds”) are welcome sunbeams amongst the clouds.

The set’s closer, “Things the Grandchildren Should Know,” is about as honest as music can get. Everett spills his anxieties into the microphone, contemplating his fear that he’s turning into his father over the slow crescendo of his band. But he isn’t one of those self-centered, “poor me” kind of artists, and after this outpouring of regret and confusion, the song ends with an inspired streak of optimism: “In the end I’d like to say/That I’m a very thankful man…I have some regrets but if I had to do it all again/Well, it’s something I’d like to do.” As the track winds down, Everett sings the main melody of his instrumentals, giving us a sonic equivalent to the “blinking lights” that randomly illuminate the beautiful things in life. If nothing else, Live at Town Hall is one of them.