EGG

If you thought ELP was the king of very elaborate classic sounding prog music, then you clearly have not heard Egg yet. Egg was a Canterbury Scene band founded in the 70s via Dave Stewart, Mont Campbell, and Clive Brooks. It was formed after the legendary Steve Hillage left their previous band. This trio is pretty commonly regarded in the Prog scene as a very weird, but interesting band from Canterbury that would do something highly different from their contemporaries like Caravan, Gong, or Soft Machine.

Their first album, the self-titled Egg, is an album that I've known since my middle period of discovering new music in 2021, but never quite delved into until I got a bit more into the Canterbury Scene through bands like Supersister and Hatfield And The North. If you want to get a good picture of Egg's general scope of sound then I'd say the more classical and symphonic stylizations of ELP's Tarkus and Aphrodite's Child's 666 is a good showcase on this more classical focused approach to proggy music.

What I really find enjoyable about this approach is the band really gushing over this type of music. Songs like the cover of Bach's Fugue In D Minor and their very own progressive rock symphony of Symphony No. 2 comes straight to mind for me. How they can make oldy sounding music and turn it over and give it a more rock construct, kinda like what ELO did in their early days, makes for a really charming experience. I really do enjoy the more Canterbury sounding songs like While Growing My Hair and The Song Of McGillicudie The Pusillanimous (Or Don't Worry James, Your Socks Are Hanging In The Coal Cellar With Thomas) too. They balance out the more classical focused songs in favor of that sweet, sweet, sweet soft Prog sound that I crave in my Canterbury music.

While I do praise the songs a lot, I am gonna be honest on the track listing because good, lord, almighty, some tracks on here do not need to be here. Bulb, They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano?, and Boilk are the most filler of filler tracks in the entire scope of Prog rock. They honestly kinda make me disappointed, since (yes I calculated) these are about 2 minutes and 26 seconds worth of music lost due to filler and adding an unnecessary amount of tracks on here. While 2 minutes is short, something can definitely be done with such time. It's honestly disappointing that this album has three highly unnecessary tracks. I'd say they should've stayed on the cutting room floor.

Sadly, that is not where my problems ends with this LP. I think the Spotify description for the band fits really well with what I am about to say: "An overlooked classical rock trio that had both the talent and sound of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer without the bombast or success." Egg, while really good musicians, never reaches the same finesse, the same savoir-faire if you will, as ELP or any of their contemporaries. They never reach the same highs for me, and I find their big moments here never ending up leaving a massive and wowing impression on me. Whether that may be because I am spoiled with other great Prog rock music or not, I still find that Egg's first album is one of the more lacking in wowness. The band definitely has their own, great charms, but the charms they lack are very noticeable.

Absolutely overlooked and underrated, but not one that is a must listen for any Prog or Canterbury fan. I'd say if you like the sound of the Canterbury Scene and the more classical workings of bands like ELP, ELO, and Aphrodite's Child, give this album a spin. It isn't a bad 40 minute time waster, and it can be a fun listen from time to time, but it isn't one that is a must have, or one that is issued in a run in to listen. It's a good album, but not one that can reach the same highs as any of its contemporaries.