Album Review: The Lovely Eggs – I Am Moron

To call The Lovely Eggs ‘northern Ting Tings‘ is to do them a massive disservice. While there is a superficial similarity in the setup and methodology, Holly and David are, as far as I can ascertain, utterly unique. It’s a quality they acknowledge, and I make no apology for quoting from their website, because it sets the tone for this review of what is by any measure, a brilliant album:

‘We do exactly what we like. That’s how it goes when you have your own band. Some of our songs are ten seconds long. Some are four minutes long. We don’t care. Because it doesn’t matter. We have a lot of different sounding songs. Welcome to our world.’

Doing exactly what they like means that every idea gets full expression. There’s no constraint on form, no genre conventions to adhere to. This means that the retro synth bleepery that is the intro and outro to opening track ‘Long Stem Carnations‘ can stretch further than is comfortable. This sense of discomfort is heightened in ‘You Can Go Now‘ which, for all its politeness, is a litany of modern things we can do without, delivered in a sweetly dismissive but devastating, eye-rolling bored teenager style. There is also no false moderation or concession on accent – The Lovely Eggs are charmingly and unapologetically regional. There’s a hint of The Fall in the pounding fuzz of ‘This Decision‘ and ‘24 Eyes‘. Add a driving motorik drumbeat and you have ‘The Digital Hair‘. Repeating motifs and coiling musical themes make for instant earworms such as ‘You’ve Got The Ball‘, ‘Insect Repellent‘ and ‘Still Second Rate‘. However, the introspective songs hint that for all the mentions of excretion and vomit, there’s a sensitive heart to this album. The ‘Mothership‘ (short and sweet at 2:10) and the towering ‘New Dawn‘, which closes the album, have an inexplicable melancholy that is at odds with the defiant tone of the rest of the album.

After a couple of listens, I remembered what this driving analogue synth/fuzz guitar beat groove reminded me of. It’s French electro-rockers Indochine. But while that band’s wistful Euro-rock was very much of its time, The Lovely Eggs have managed to make that sound contemporary and fresh again. That’s one of the charming paradoxes underlying this record: while there’s a clear family tie between “I Am Moron” and the kind of Peel-fave introspective and determinedly odd and angular experimental pop of the early 80s, The Lovely Eggs are very now. 

Combining the melodic drive and spirit of The Dollyrots with the determined eccentricity of Mark E Smith and mixing it all up into one gloriously snarky and idiosyncratic mélange, The Lovely Eggs have made a cracker of an album. It’s also a cruel mirror to the idiocy of modern Britain. For this is a very British album. Simultaneously innocent and knowing, and completely and charmingly mad, I Am Moron absolutely should be your new favourite record. Bewilderingly brilliant lo-fi for now people.

“I Am Moron” is out on 3rd April on Egg Records.