Are We Alright Again
by Eels

Album: Earth to Dora (2020)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Eels main man Mark Everett kick-started the songwriting for the Earth to Dora album with a text message thread to the band's lighting director Dora (hence the record's name). He continued writing collaboratively with other members of Eels, and by the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he had completed all but one track. This is the only song Everett wrote during the coronavirus lockdown.
  • The song finds Everett detailing his post-pandemic plans. He told NME:

    "In the early days when it was really getting bad for the first time. It's kind of like a quarantine daydream that I desperately needed to have. It's my fantasy of 'Oh, it's all over and now we can go out and do stuff!' It got a little extreme in my case, I'd go out and get high with birds and there's a marching band marching through the middle of the outro. I couldn't wait to try to make people feel a little more hopeful for the future. There's no time to wait."
  • Everett told UK newspaper The Sun he has faith in the post-Covid future: "History has always had periods where everybody says: 'this is the worst period in history.' And then it gets better. I have to believe it will do that."
  • Greg Barnes directed the video, which stars Mad Men's Jon Hamm as "a typical Eels fan finding solace in Eels' music." The one-take clip features the actor getting so lost in the music that he doesn't clock a robbery taking place directly behind him.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")Song Writing

Director Mark Pellington on Pearl Jam's "Jeremy," and music videos he made for U2, Jon Bon Jovi and Imagine Dragons.

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions Answered

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions AnsweredSong Writing

10 Questions for the author of Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & PalmerSongwriter Interviews

Greg talks about writing songs of "universal truth" for King Crimson and ELP, and tells us about his most memorable stage moment (it involves fireworks).

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."

Harry Wayne Casey of KC and The Sunshine Band

Harry Wayne Casey of KC and The Sunshine BandSongwriter Interviews

Harry Wayne Casey tells the stories behind KC and The Sunshine Band hits like "Get Down Tonight," "That's The Way (I Like It)," and "Give It Up."

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And HellSongwriter Interviews

Guitarist Tony Iommi on the "Iron Man" riff, the definitive Black Sabbath song, and how Ozzy and Dio compared as songwriters.