All-Time Albums: #87

EG AND ALICE 24 Years Of Hunger
(1991)

1 Rockets 5:36
2 In A Cold Way 4:30
3 Mystery Man 3:46
4 And I Have Seen Myself 3:47
5 So High, So Low 4:55
6 New Year’s Eve 6:21
7 Indian 3:48
8 Doesn’t Mean That Much To Me 6:07
9 Crosstown 4:47
10 IOU 3:51
11 I Wish 4:30

 

Every once in a while, you hear a record by a new act or by someone obscure which stops you in your tracks and makes you think “I simply HAVE to get this!”. In the late summer of 1991, “Indian” was one such record. The best thing, however, was once I had the whole album, it wasn’t even the most sublime thing on it.

Take a onetime/sometime member of boyband Brother Beyond, and a onetime/sometime model, team them up on an inspired journey through soulful pop, funk and folk (think Prince’s Sign O The Times or peak period Gil Scott-Heron mixed with Rickie Lee Jones plus a dash of Talking Heads), sit back and enjoy.

My collection is not especially noted for its abundance of lo-fi, freeform music that detours from the intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-fade template. But there are exceptions. 24 Years Of Hunger is impossible not to love, a slightly woozy vibe hanging over the album as it takes in a myriad of styles and influences. Eg White sounds alternately like a helium Prince or a coked-out Lindsey Buckingham, while Alice Temple brings some beautiful harmonies and her own laissez-faire vocal style.

These were times when such records could be on a major label (in this case, WEA) and get airplay on Radio 1. Success sadly eluded them (Eg going on to be a major player in the post X-Factor world of songwriting) but for this one LP alone, it was worth it.