ROLLING STONE
17 May 2022
By Conor Lochrie

Melbourne’s left-field pop band Eggy have given fans a taste of their forthcoming sophomore album with the surreal ‘A Toast to Good Health’.

Melbourne’s left-field pop band Eggy have given fans a taste of their forthcoming sophomore album with the typically surreal “A Toast to Good Health”.

To celebrate the announcement of With Gusto, set for release on July 22nd via Flightless Records, the band have released the album’s lead single and video.

“A Toast to Good Health” is a twisted take on that titular act: the song captures the differing shades of emotions held within any toast, a raised glass being always both meaningful and melancholic. “There’s a lot of sadness in this world mixed in with the good stuff. There’s no formula to feeling and Toast is a reflection on the space between the multitude of emotions,” the group explains.

The video, directed by Bill Irving, does well to bring this idea to life. The clip indulges in the wonky opulence of Eggy’s song, featuring the band playing what appears to be a wedding. The camera woozily twirls throughout the delirious partygoers, like a less nightmarish version of Gaspar Noé, as they slowly grow into the mood of the band onstage.

“So this clip is a smoosh of a lot of the things that Eggy’s music makes me feel… happiness, sadness, nostalgia, melancholia… kinda all at once,” Irving says. “It takes a lot to dance in front of a camera and make yourself that  vulnerable, I think the clip helps us to feel that joy and vulnerability, but also the lifetime’s worth of courage that informs it.”

Eggy are the absurdist left-field choice that you weren’t sure about for your wedding, but whose music you end up losing yourself in. “Going to the party / Get dressed up,” they chant as the song streaks to its frenetic conclusion. There’s a confronting oddness about what Eggy do but it’s carried off with an innate coolness; this is the fine line all avant-pop usually walks.

Eggy consists of Charlie Wolstenholme, Dominic Moore, Lucy Packham, Sam Lyons, and Zoe Monk. Coming together from the close-knit Melbourne music community – Moore plays in the similarly wonky outfit Kosmetika, Monk is part of jangle-pop favourites The Stroppies, while Lyons was in the wonderful lo-fi pop band House Deposit – Eggy has seemingly provided a suitable home for each of their more experimental musical desires.

With Gusto is the follow-up to the band’s 2020 debut Bravo!, with their second album set to continue with the same imaginative flair within a more refined structure. “We really wanted to make something that was bigger and bolder than we’ve done in the past.. Almost as though it could only be played by an orchestra,” the band adds.

Eggy’s “A Toast to Good Health” is out now, available only on YouTube.