Yesssss, I finally found it: Eg And Alice "25 Years Of Hunger"...

I was very lucky the other day to come across Eg and Alice "25 Years Of Hunger". I think I heard it on its release in 1992 and I remember finding it OK but didn´t bother to buy it at that time. Since then I have read about the "band" or duo- it was selected Buried Treasure in Mojo nr. 189 and I started to look around for this- their only album!
On visiting the Danish town of Aarhus a year or so ago I located it, gave it a listen once more in the shop and found it, well a bit too polished for my liking (that day as it turned out!). I didn´t buy it!

Since then I have been arguing with myself why the H*ll I didn´t buy it when I had the chance- it wasn´t even the pricetag that held me back!

 



Going to Aarhus again the other day I was very fortunate to track down the album at the same shop and in exactly the same case it was stored in as the last time I visited the place. This time I was absolutely certain, I just bought the Eg And Alice-album on sight and paid the equivalent of 10 Euros!

What I´d like to discuss here, apart from a little on the music later on, is the fact that you more often than not leave albums that you should have bought than buying albums you shouldn´t have! This applies for me, anyway!

Either you are in a hurry or you are in a mood where you are unable to decide wheather to buy or not. It´s not even a monetary issue, I mean you can always find money for one album somehow, can´t you?
In other words you have to keep your calm and be rigorous when browsing through albums in record shops. If you find one album from your wantlist, buy it, at least if the price is right.
I mean, a rare album in good nick from way back is likely to cost you a considerably amount of money. Then you must have your priorities right and buy it if it means that much to your adding it to your collection! If not, let it go!
Some record collectors keep their collection intact with all items they have ever bought where other collectors find that their collection is a living organism so to speak and exchange or sell as well as buy new items for future listening.
Which kind of collector you are or want to become you must decide for yourself!

And now:.....back to the Eg....!
Eg (Francis Anthony) White and Alice (Temple) only made this one album as Eg And Alice. It spawned a single, "Indian" but nothing happened! It didn´t stop them, however, from making music albeit not together as Eg and Alice. Alice Temple has only made a couple of albums since, one of which included Eg White as a producer.
Eg White continued as a songwriter and producer. Tried an unsuccessful solo album but success beckoned as he started  writing songs for others (Suggs, Duffy, Adele, James Morrison and Joss Stone).

The music on "25 Years Of Hunger" is when heard the first couple of times "just" pop songs dressed in funky, jazzy arrangements. But as you get into the tracks of the album you hear songs with themes that comes across as both serious and mature concerning Eg White´s personal life and his outlook on politics....

The tunes are complex with very nice singing throughout the album. The melody lines are slightly twisted to support the lyric´s darker issues of life but- being pop songs after all- with choruses you can sing along to. The duo is either singing solo between each other or both of them together resulting in a very subtle kind of pop music indeed!

The record didn´t make a great impact in 1992. It didn´t chart. (No. 103 you don´t call "to chart", do you?)
"25 Years Of Hunger" has been compared to albums by (Scots) The Blue Nile and Deacon Blue with the jazzy smoothness of Steely Dan, but don´t let this discourage you if consider yourself "a rock fan"!
Go ahead and dig up some buried treasure for yourself!



PGP

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