How Do You Like Your Lobster?

Rate It! Avg: 4.0 (22 ratings)
Sample Album
ALBUM INFORMATION
EDITOR'S PICK

Total Tracks: 18   Total Length: 68:20

eMusic Review

Avatar Image
Douglas Wolk

eMusic Contributor

Douglas Wolk writes about pop music and comic books for Time, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Wired and elsewhere. He's the author of Reading Comics: How Gra...more »

02.13.08
A witty, acerbic songwriter with a taste for non-rock modes
1995 | Label: Teenbeat Records / IODA

Eggs were one of Teenbeat's flagship bands in the '90s, and their best work was their string of all-over-the-place singles, collected here. Singer/guitarist Andrew Beaujon had been associated with Teenbeat in one capacity or another since its very early days, including early cassettes he made under the name Scaley Andrew. He was a witty, acerbic songwriter with a taste for non-rock modes: "Sugar Babe" is more or less a samba, and "A Pit With Spikes" bursts into full-on Bee Gees disco for its bridge. Eggs' signature sound, though, was Rob Christiansen's trombone, an instrument so desperately uncool by '90s indie-rock standards it looped all the way back around to supercool. (Christiansen went on to the rock-opera-prone Teenbeat band Viva Satellite.)

Write a Review1 Member Review

Please log in before you review a release. Log in

user avatar

I Have to Agree with Allmusic

reidmix

I've played this album to death in the 90s. From moody indie gems, Ocelot (look for the remix), The Obliviist (there's a part 3 too), and Erin Go Bragh! Clever lyrics in Roll Away the Stone and A Pit with Spikes. The perfect anti-work song, The Government Administrator is only matched by Andrew Beaujon's later Three Finger Salute. Also, great covers of Genetic Engineers (OMD) and Words (Low) -- This has to be a perfect introduction to Eggs.

Recommended Albums

They Say All Media Guide

A collection of various singles and compilation appearances, How Do You Like Your Lobster? makes for a mighty fine overview of the Eggs’ first half of the ’90s, and arguably might actually be its best album all around. It’s certainly a great snapshot of the band’s quietly evolving approaches over time. If opening songs like the wonderful “Skyscraper” are low-key indie rock with a bit of energy here and there, as the album goes things are much more varied, from the odd chants on “Sexual Tension” and the not-quite-scat-singing and funk turns on “Roll Away the Stone” to the shoegaze-meets-tempo change of “Baked Alaska.” It’s not that one can’t hear the ambition early on — Marianne McGee’s low-key turn on flügelhorn helps add just a touch of majesty, if one likes, to “Ocelot,” while Rob Christiansen does similar on “Sugar Babe” and both parts of “The Oblivist” with tuba (on the latter adding some woozy New Orleans jazz moans). Some really wonderful songs and performances mark the entire disc — the earliest stone classic is “The Government Administrator,” which sounds like the type of epically heroic song the Flaming Lips would end up doing more of towards the end of the millennium. Then there’s Mark Robinson’s “ruined” remix of “A Pit With Spikes,” beautiful, simple verses complete with bizarro falsetto midsong break, and a snaky, just off-kilter enough cover of OMD’s early-’80s winner “Genetic Engineering” (the replication of the computer voices is quite amusing!), as well as a slightly peppier version of Low’s “Words” — with tuba. Andrew Beaujon tackles the liner notes with a curious but fun theme, relating every particular single or recording session to a fish dinner or meal of some sort. Among other revelations — that Mimi from Low “sure can cook au papilotte.” – Ned Raggett

more »