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Posted on May 6th, 2010 by Alan @ 3:42 pm
I promised you more frequent posts, and also a review of Eg’s newest album, “Adventure Man”. Before I brave the ash cloud and jet off on holiday I’m determined to do both, and also line up a few wee posts to appear automagically while I’m away. Eg’s almost done the pop star thing himself – he was the drummer in Brother Beyond until they signed to Stock, Aitken & Waterman, and was half responsible for the best pop record no-one’s ever heard of in 1991 (Eg & Alice’s “24 Years Of Hunger”). Since then, other than a solo album every 10 years or so, he’s been content to write pop songs for other people (James Blunt, Will Young, Duffy, Kylie, James Morrison, Take That etc) But thankfully he finds the time to record himself, and his records are always enjoyable. Some of the tracks on this new one are quirkier than the top ten would probably live with (Weird Friendless Kid, for example) and I wonder how many of these tracks were originally intended for others to sing, and how many were written with this album in mind. The highlights for me are “But California”, the album’s opener which starts tentatively but builds momentum beautifully (is that Alice on backing vocals?) and “Broken” which I’m amazed wasn’t a huge hit. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Buy “Adventure Man” here No Comments |
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Posted on Nov 7th, 2007 by Alan @ 1:36 pm
I promised an Eg post a couple of days ago, and here it is. I also used this as an excuse for a bit of t’interwebbing to find out a bit more about what Eg did before and since… Turns out he was a founder member (the drummer) of Brother Beyond along with his brother David who played guitar. He featured heavily in the writing credits for their first album before leaving – and this first album was then re-recorded with their new drummer after they signed for Stock, Aitken and Waterman’s hit factory. No idea whether it was an acrimonious split, but I suspect Christmas dinner at the Whites’ house must have been a bundle of fun that year! So then Eg hooked up with Alice and made the best album no-one has ever heard of before they went their separate ways. Five years later he followed this up with a decent effort of his own which went equally unnoticed by the rest of the planet – I remember reading that the album had been released at the time and before I managed to track a copy down I was positively salivating at the prospect of his Jellyfish cover, Stay Home. It didn’t disappoint. There were some great moments in his own material on that album too, even though it didn’t quite hit the heights of the Eg & Alice album. My top pick is a track called Sister Blue. But what’s he done since then? Well, it turns out that after working with Alice Temple again on her solo album “Hang Over” he became the arch nemesis of Mr Jem Godfrey of Frost*, carving out a career writing chewing gum for the ears for the likes of Will Young, Natalie Imbruglia, Charlotte Church, Take That, Kylie Minogue, Jamelia and James Morrison. Between them they have a couple of Ivor Novello songwriting awards (Jem for Shayne Ward’s “That’s My Goal”, and Eg for Will Young’s “Leave Right Now”) Eg – Stay Home Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Eg – Sister Blue Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. 1 Comment |
