Those fans that stayed with L.A.'s awesome Eels after initial shiny success know what to expect from any given new CD: a balance of melancholy mid-tempo pop and de-/reconstructed blues stompers for the new millennium. Hey, guess what makes up Hombre Lobo? Yup. And it's a great collection of classic E-penned tunes, split just about down the middle between his two default settings. Where the pop stuff might have outshone some of the blues stuff in the past, the revved-up, fuzzed-out groove-jams come out on top here, particularly "Tremendous Dynamite" and "What's A Fella Gotta Do," but "Fresh Blood" actually brings the Eels' yin and yang together with exciting results. - Scott Harrell