Coming quick on the heels of this year’s heartbreaking masterpiece, End Times, Mark Oliver Everett has pieced his shattered life together again and emerged from the gutter with a new Eels album, the appropriately named Tomorrow Morning, a collection of hopeful, affectionate songs that stand in stark contrast to the despondent tracks found on his last record. While it is reassuring to hear that E has mended his broken heart, these cheerful, electro-pop numbers sound a bit too sanguine to have as much lasting impact as the candid, intensely personal numbers that made End Times so moving and memorable.

Tomorrow Morning is the final installment of Eels’ prolific and emotional trilogy that also included 2009′s Hombre Lobo, and these new songs reflect a growth in both Everett’s inner-spirit as well as his production, which is rather lavish on this record, especially when compared to the rather sparse arrangements found on the last album. And while I clearly don’t begrudge Everett his newfound happiness, I just happen to think that lyrically he mines the depths of pain and desolation better than he captures his current state of bliss. And perhaps E knows this, as well, as he shrouds many of these sunny, buoyant songs beneath synthesized, heavily-processed beats and relentlessly optimistic melodies that only adds to the inefficacious nature of the album.

As Everett sings in ‘I’m A Hummingbird,’ “It was all worth it, to be here now,” so the pain and anguish he has suffered in the past ultimately proves rewarding, because he’s survived those dark moments to see the light that this type of joy provides in his life. But euphoria doesn’t easily translate into strong songwriting, as Everett’s rhyming structure remains simple and elementary throughout most of the record, all while being drenched in artificial rhythms and his newly discovered affection. And while the question posed on ‘In The Morning,’ “It’s anybody’s day, it could go any way. Why wouldn’t you want to make the most of it?” reflects a positive, fresh outlook that all of us could use at the start of our day, that consistent cheerfulness eventually grows tiresome as the tracks grow more routine and less inventive as the record progresses.

E’s offbeat, acerbic sense of humor is present throughout the album, giving these candid, emotional love-letters some necessary levity that keeps them from ever being overly saccharine. On the fuzz-filled, bluesy stomp of ‘My Baby Loves Me,’ Everett smirks: “The bad girls think I’m just too nice, and the nice girls call me Dick. But baby loves me, and she’s smarter than you.” That witty confidence is also spectacularly present on ‘The Man:’ “Look in the mirror, I am the man. Mrs. Miller says I am the man…everyone is a fan.” Even though the joke gets old as the song goes on, you can’t help but laugh right along to his sarcastic conceit. ‘Spectacular Girl’ does away with all of the humor and is simply a sweet love-song; a smart track that focuses on what makes a person special, along the lines of the Flaming Lips ‘Do You Realize.’ Under less talented hands, this song would drip with artificiality, but Everett pulls it off, even though his sense of contentment will certainly catch the listener off guard. But ‘What I Have To Offer,’ while being a stark examination of self-worth, doesn’t succeed as much, just drifting while not hitting its mark. Things pick back up on ‘This Is Where It Gets Good,’ but the somewhat vapid lyrics fail to match the musical inventiveness of the track, which thankfully has a long, beat-driven coda that is one of the high-points of the album.

‘Looking Up’ is a funky gospel romp, reminiscent of Spiritualized, and is a welcome vocal gamble for Everett, who hoots and hollers throughout this spirited number. Unfortunately, the rest of the album is far more languid, never building on that energy, instead seeming to run out of steam and fresh ideas, both musically and lyrically. When combined with the two inessential instrumentals, more than half of the album amounts to negligible filler that fails to inspire or rouse any feelings within the listener. Which is a shame, since Everett is obviously so full of positive emotions and sentiment that he released a new record a scant eight months after his last. But while End Times drew the listener in close to E’s pained, fractured existence, Tomorrow Morning leaves you on the outside looking in; happy that Everett has found himself a muse, just unsure that his contentment has inspired anything quite so original as his heartbreak did.