Spelling The Eggmen Whoooooo! is a bit of a challenge; not fully sure how many o’s go in there, a bit like writing banana as a kid and not knowing where to stop with the na’s. Still, all part of the fun of getting to know the Welsh outfit’s rather tremendous debut album Fuzzy Eggs, Please. The Eggmen Whoooooo! are quite the ensemble, comprising as they do of members of EL Goodo, Los Blancos and Trecco Beis. Monikers Benedict E Frye, Gregg Boyle, Sheldon Advocaat, Thom Lett, Gwyn Ŵy and Sue Flay might be ouef-themed metaphors – albeit clever ones – but make no mistake this is an incredibly accomplished album of simply great songwriting and inventive musicianship.
Fuzzy Eggs, Please is one for music nerds, basically. And we suspect the egg men and woman involved together with producer Thighpaulsandra (Spiritualized, Tim Burgess), make no apologies for this. The moment the stylus needle settles in the white, pink and purple splattered record we’re surrounded by shelves of classic psychedelia, garage, surf rock and 60s pop records lovingly played and soaked up. And yet, we have here an album suited for contemporary times in its own right. Fuzzy Eggs, Please subtly raises issues and mindsets perhaps not voiced so readily back in its inspirations’ heydays. Take ‘Eggman Vs Hellboy’ and its lyrical contemplation and acceptance of life’s limits. ”A slight twist on the eternal ‘I’m only human’ type of lyrical sentiment. Here the crux is slightly more extreme: I’m not a superhero, I’m just an Eggman Whoooooo!” says vocalist Frye. But what an absolute stomper in the Nuggets garage rock tradition, with fuzzy guitar and collaborative “whooo!” sealing the bonding and understanding.
‘It’s Just Your Mind’ is the sort of song you see on old black and white episodes of Beat-Club, but with a modern reality of, bloody hell, we all get fed up sometimes. “The verses are a list of someone’s problems that they may be dealing with and the choruses are of some well-meaning person brushing it off and saying: ‘it’s alright, you’ll be fine, it’s all just in your mind’. Yeah, good advice, Numbnuts,” adds the band. The song has the precise correct amount of cowbell thanks very much, another whoo! in there too, lest we forget whose company we enjoy with this record.
‘The Fuzzy Eggs Please‘ instrumental title song showcases fabulous organ and surf guitar, with a Cossack chant, a pinch of shimmering this, a lashing of that, the layering masquerading as chaos. The Eggmen go straight to psych town no deviation with ‘I Don’t Care’. Twangy guitar, high drama with stakes to match fuzzed right up, the outfit summing it up as ‘Ennui, existential dread, boredom, hangovers, render times etc.’
‘Rwy’n Dy Garu Di ‘sung in Welsh, garage rock authenticity with anarchic Jerry Lee Lewis rock n roll piano, and The Eggmen Whoooo! surprise with a bracing and faithful rendition of The Mummies’ ‘Stronger Than Dirt’, Frye showing the range of his vocal chops. Raw and ready, this one.
Coming in at fractionally over seven minutes, it’s the spelling of ‘The Old Man Kmows Best’ what’s upsetting rather than song length. Let the wall of fuzz give way to a quite gorgeous contemplative twanging guitar and a touching sweetness and haunting beauty getting you right in the feels.
Take it all in, with an acceptance these lot know what they’re doing and how to say it.
The fast and not so furious ‘So Long (Bye Bye Baby)’ has a 60s innocence; the slowing down a humorous concession, with gorgeous Beach Boys-like harmonies.
The album is bookended politely, if you care to see it that way. Opener ‘I Don’t Need Your Drugs (I’m A Kool Kunt Already)’ initially discordant but with a verbal greeting from Frye, easing into a natural head-nodder – whilst holding a pint of lager, we fancy – listing all the beautiful recreationals. Final song ‘Ready To Go Now’ has Brian Jonestown Massacre vibes, and cheeky Beatles to the point of impudence. Whooo! Indeed. Good manners cost nothing and our egg friends know it; ‘thank you!’, Frye cries in farewell at the end, before leaving us.
There is something reassuring about instinctively knowing that a band has a bloody great collective taste in music. And eggs. Eggs are powerhouses of nutrition packed with protein and a range of 18 vitamins and minerals, after all. Hugely versatile too. No need for questioning either here. Wearing one’s heart on a musical sleeve is an honesty worth expressing with an album as warm and welcoming as this, a record taking a well-earned place in the continuing story of Welsh psych and rock n roll.
Fuzzy Eggs, Please is out now via Strangetown Records.
