ALBUM REVIEW: The Lovely Eggs – Eggistentialism (Egg Records)
The Lovely Eggs have been one of independent music’s best-kept secrets for years, but they were never going to be able to keep it that way.
Married couple Holly Ross and David Blackwell are resolutely DIY, releasing their own records, organising their own tours and selling their own merch, and they’ve long appealed to fellow outsiders and freaks.
But in recent years things have changed; other people have finally cottoned on to them, and started to tell their friends just how good this weird but extremely loveable band are.
It helps when a bona fide rock legend like Iggy Pop has played your music on his radio show, and collaborated on one of your singles. And it helps that they make albums which challenge anew what their growing army of eggheads expect from them, and get better with every one.
Eggistentialism is their seventh long player, and their first since 2020’s I Am Moron (reviewed here). Its promotion was derailed by the pandemic, but still made No 51 in the Official UK Album Chart and No 2 in the Official UK Physical Album Chart.
After taking a couple of years out to try to save the Lancaster Music Co-Op, a community rehearsal room and recording studio in their hometown, The Lovely Eggs have bounced back stronger than ever with the new record.
Holly (guitar and vocals) says it’s “really a reflection on what has been happening to us these last couple of years, stewing up in Eggland in our own juices. It’s about loss and strength.
“On this album you’ll hear us at our lowest and most vulnerable. Daily life is hard. Realising everything you grew up with and loved is never coming back, alongside the responsibilities of caring for others is sometimes hard to take. The album is about life and death. Eggsistentialism. It’s about dragging yourself through all the shit to get to the other side.”
After a psychedelic intro the album bursts into life with Death Grip Kids, a typical two-fingered salute whose opening line is “Shove your funding up your arse! We don’t want your money!” is a wonderful outpouring of pent-up anger and frustration.
Nothing/Everything is a wistful seven-minute psychedelia-tinged love letter about making it through hard times together, and it’s right up there with their finest material. Holly’s vocals are heartfelt as she sings: “I’m waiting to see/I’m waiting to feel/I’m waiting to lose/Everything.”
Meeting Friends at Night is a song of two halves, with a gentle opening followed by a chaotic collision of sounds, while People TV addresses the mundanity of everyday life, to floaty electro beat.
Lead single My Mood Wave is a slice of lush 60s-tinged pop, about persevering at what you believe in – which could be The Lovely Eggs’ manifesto statement.
A backdrop of buzzsaw guitar and urgent drums show the Eggs can do DIY punk too as they throw out a two-minute blast of anger and energy in I Don’t Fucking Know What I’m Gunna Do.
Memory Man sees them delve into distorted krautrock, while Holly starts lo-fi pop Things by indulging in a spot of beatboxing, before bemoaning the way throw away “thousands of beautiful things, piled up high“. Including a baking tray signed by Yoko Ono, apparently.
Haunting ’80s synth marks out Echo You, and the album ends on a high with another standout track, I Am Gaia.
A song about devoting your life to DIY music while juggling everyday tasks, it lays Holly’s emotions bare from the off as she sings: “When you tell the crowd you’re broken and they clap for more.”
This is heart on the sleeve time, about all the hurt, the hard times, the uncertainty, as she continues: “I am hurting/I am wanting/I am walking/I am ringing/I am ironing/I am caring/I am singing/I am broken.”
If anyone didn’t ‘get’ The Lovely Eggs before listening to this album, perhaps they will now. This is pop music as therapy, and it’s their best yet. 8/10.
- Eggsistentialism is available on CD and mind green 12in vinyl, with all orders made direct through the band’s website coming with a limited edition signed print of the album artwork, with the first 500 LPs hand numbered and signed by the band. Indie record stores will have their own exclusive run of 1,000 LPs pressed on transparent blue vinyl with ‘coffee’ splatter.
