Trollheart

Album title: Egg
Artist: Egg
Nationality: Egglish, sorry English
Label: Deram
Grade: B
Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Landmark value: I honestly don’t know. I’ll research them later on and see if there’s a need for an article about them, but for now all I can tell you is that they were part of the Canterbury Scene, and that one their members went on to join Hatfield and the North
Tracklisting: Bulb/While Growing My Hair/I Will Be Absorbed/Fugue in D Minor/They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano.../The Song of McGillicudie the Pusilllanimous (Or Don’t Worry James, Your Socks Are Hanging In the Cellar with Thomas/Boilk/Symphony No. 2 (i) Movement 1 (ii) Movement 2(iii) Blane (iv) Movement 4/Seven is a Jolly Good Time/You Are All Princes
Comments: Look at some of those titles! Well, “Bulb” is nothing; a few seconds of sound effect, might be bass piano notes or something, so I couldn’t really count that as a song, then things get going properly with “While Growing My Hair”, which is a bouncy, almost at times waltzy tune running on thick organ work and a vocal which is almost declaimed. Very seventies prog here for sure. Good start. “I Will Be Absorbed” sounds like a warning about the Borg from Star Trek, and gives me an impression of having a sort of vaguely soul feel to it. Great work on the mellotron; always good to hear that. I kind of think of that as the true sound of progressive rock.

Next up is a rendition of that Bach favourite (who doesn’t love a good fugue from time to time?) and shows what Dave Stewart can do on the organ, then at the piano in the next track, though it’s very short, just over a minute and into that weirdly named track which I’m not going to write out again. This is a very intense, almost chaotic trip on the mellotron with a fast delivery on the vocal. Song’s almost as crazy in its execution as its title. “Boilk” is just another minute of nonsense then they go all epic for the close with a twenty-two minute symphony which seems to open on xylophone or something for about two before they throw in a fucking ROCKING version of Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and things really get going.

It’s of course very organ-driven (I don’t think Egg had a guitar player, at least none is listed) so it’s pretty much keys all the way. “Movement 2” seems to link in the bass and percussion to a sprightly piano melody, but you could almost say the drums take over here. Goes into a kind of slow marching rhythm about halfway through, almost “Iron Man”, though not quite. I have no idea why “Movement 3” is called “Blane”, but it is. Though there’s no guitar it sounds like one, and I see they used a thing called a “tone generator”, whatever that may be, so maybe that’s what sounds like guitar screeching. It’s pretty freaky and I guess would have been quite experimental and out-there for 1970.

As you’d expect of course this is instrumental, being a symphony as such, but it is pretty clever how they make it sound like there is a guitar, especially in the fourth movement. It’s a long piece, but doesn’t really seem so. Vocals are back then for Egg’s only single, “Seven is a Jolly Good Time” (whatever that means; they seem to have their own language and idioms which confuse me) and it’s a bit sixties pop really, not that great to be honest, but quite short, and we end on “You Are All Princes”. I’d have to admit that Egg are a much better band without the vocals; they just seem a little, I don’t know, superfluous most of the time.

Favourite track(s): While Growing My Hair/I Will Be Absorbed/Fugue in D Minor, Symphony No. 2
Least favourite track(s): Boilk, Seven is a Jolly Good Time
Overall impression: Great work on the keys, but really without that Egg would be nothing. Good album but I can see why they only had very limited success, also why they were welcome at the Canterbury Scene. Quite a jam/freak-out style here.
Personal Rating:
Legacy Rating:
Final Rating:

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018