A couple of weeks I'd never heard of The Lovely Eggs (Lancaster, England). "Eggistentialism" is the 7th full length album from this duo and the 3rd to feature artwork from Casey Raymond and production from Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips).
The cast of collaborators over their years of existence is frankly mind-boggling: Ian Mackaye, Gruff Rhys, Cate LeBon, and Jad Fair (many of these collabration are on their YouTube series, Eggs TV - Casey Raymond also worked with them on this).
While the band releases most of their work on their own label, they did release their debut LP on Happy Happy Birthday To Me. The band consists of Holly Ross (formerly of 1990s band Angelica) and David Blackwell (3D Tanx).
It's pretty hard to find comparisons to this. At times I would say Art Brut and Super Furry Animals, at others it feels like the attitude and sneer of Sleaford Mods (listen to other releases) - but really the music is all over the place and fairly uncategorizable.
Mercury Rev- See You on the Other Side
(Neo-Psychedelia, Psychedelic Pop, Noise Pop)
Released: May 1, 1995 [Beggars Banquet Records]
Producer(s): Jonathan Donahue, Dave Fridmann, Grasshopper, Suzanne Thorpe, Jimy Chambers
Mogwai — As the Love Continues (Rock Action/Temporary Residence Ltd.)
It might be tempting to chalk up the surprising (even to the band) success of As the Love Continues to either just one more slightly bizarre thing that’s happened in the past few years or the product of a lot of stalwart fans being determined to celebrate the Scottish quartet’s 25th anniversary. Certainly, once it appeared even possible that Mogwai might have a number one album in the UK, it started generating its own momentum, but the record got there in a first place via a much more straightforward and sometimes hard to achieve feat: two and a half decades in, Mogwai simply made a record that got people who like their music excited.
It’s not as if the band had been wandering in the wilderness or anything; since founding member John Cummings left in 2015, Mogwai still kept up the pace with albums and soundtracks and if anything had continued to explore more facets of their sound and setup than most acts half their age. But even without the chart success (it also snuck into the top 10 in the States), As the Love Continues would feel like a bit of a culmination, the way 2011’s Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. did, a record that takes those explorations and integrates them into a striking, cohesive set of songs.
This isn’t a case of trying to reinvent the wheel so much as it is reveling in just how very good you’ve gotten at making wheels in the first place. Devotees will not be particularly surprised to find a single lovely track with vocals (“Ritchie Sacramento,” written in memory of the Silver Jews’ David Berman), a few more intense little riffers that lend themselves well to furious physical activity (“Ceiling Granny,” “Supposedly, We Were Nightmares”) and some more atmospheric, even elegiac songs (“Dry Fantasy,” “Midnight Flit” and its strings arranged by past collaborator Atticus Ross).
Still, even when working with an established palette, much of As the Love Continues shows off particularly muscular, vivid uses of it. The opening “To the Bin My Friend, Tonight We Vacate Earth” (taking its title and opening sample from the somnambulant muttering of Blanck Mass’s Benjamin John Power) has a stately but bruising power that sounds like a Pacific Rim robot being assembled, maybe, while the combo of “Drive the Nail” and “Fuck Off Money” flips naturally from the former’s surprisingly lithe monomaniacal pound to the latter glowering and sizzling like something from The Thing being fried on a griddle.
The band had worked with producer Dave Fridmann before, although never remotely, but there are even some new tricks up their sleeves; on the extended build of “Pat Stains” some of the whirling howl that’s generated comes from guest Colin Stetson’s mighty saxophone, and it’s both unlike anything the band have done and perfectly in line with their strengths. As they close with the glowing, nocturnal crescendos of “It’s What I Want to Do, Mum” listeners can both get a chuckle out of another top tier Mogwai track name and recognize the truth and strength of the statement; As the Love Continues is what they want to do, and it’s working out spectacularly.
