Over the last 15-plus years, husband and wife duo Holly Ross and David Blackwell, aka the Lovely Eggs, have bent their raw and ready DIY sound into various psych-punk shapes. From the unfiltered energy of Cob Dominos (2011) to the textured sounds of This Is Our Nowhere (2015), they’ve consistently pushed their music into fresh, unpredictable territory. Their 2018 LP, This Is Eggland, was a career high-water mark with its unpolished aesthetic and playful, poignant lyrics. Eggsistentialism (their third album working with Flaming Lips producer David Fridmann) maintains a similar approach: combining their signature lo-fi with eclectic new influences and lyrics revolving around the mundanity of everyday life and what lies in the cracks beneath its surface.
Take the epic seven-minute “Nothing/Everything”, which explores the duality of domestic life, the song’s surface-level simplicity bellying a hefty emotional weight. Ross’ lyrics underscore the complexities, disconnects, and micro-heartbreaks in everyday communication, marrying brooding commonplace observations with a looping psychedelic arrangement: “I am here, and I am married to you / The T-shirt you are wearing it is blue,” “I call you on the phone every day / and sometimes I just don’t know what to say,” “I say are you ok? / But that’s a stupid question, cos of all the things I know of you, you’re not ok.”
Mundanity and personal struggles are a recurring theme across the album. On “I Am Gaia”, Ross sings in a monotone about coping with the non-stop drudgery of daily life—both outer and inner: “The phone rings ten times a day / I am hurting / I am wanting / I am walking / I am ringing / I am ironing / I am caring / I am singing / I am broken.” Ross captures the constant push and pull between our responsibilities and inner worlds, the overload of the working week.
Other cuts are, instrumentally at least, a little more upbeat. “Meeting Friends at Night” fuses jagged electro-punk with krautrock’s motorik buzz. Meanwhile, “People TV” offers a melancholic look at life’s banality: “It’s older than the sun, this self-repeating town / The same thing went on then / The same thing goes on now,” but is driven by a dizzying electro beat. “My Mood Wave’s” catchy alt-rock echoes 1990s Weezer, while “Memory Man” would sound right at home on a 2000s Fall LP with its hard-hitting mix of post-punk, crunchy 1960s psych rock, and experimental sounds.
Strangely, the Lovely Eggs are at their least impactful when at their most punchy and direct. The opener, “Death Grip Kids”, is a burst of old-school punk rock energy in the vein of X-Ray Spex. The track channels the frustration Ross and Blackwell felt while fighting to save Lancaster Music Co-Op, a vital community space. While their commitment to a noble cause is laudable, the intensity here feels a little forced. The same goes for the fuzzy, breakneck “I Don’t Fucking Know What I’m Gunna Do”. The messy, disjointed, chaotic “Things” also recalls the Fall—also never the most tidy or polished of bands—and this track reflects that same inconsistency.
Overall, the album is a fine addition to the Lovely Eggs’ ever-expanding nest of acid punk, and Ross’ emotional refrain on “I Am Gaia” perhaps best encapsulates Eggsistentialism: “When you tell the crowd you’re broken, and they clap for more.” Honesty doesn’t get much rawer than this. Comfort cloaks complexity, strength upholds fragility, art born of suffering.